DNA: Difference between revisions

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Ala Jelani, Eran Hodis, Eric Martz, Joel L. Sussman, Adithya Sagar, Wayne Decatur, David Canner, Angel Herraez, Frédéric Dardel, Karl Oberholser, Joseph M. Steinberger, Alexander Berchansky, Ann Taylor, Karsten Theis

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 <applet load='1bna' size='400' frame='true' align='left' caption='Small piece of DNA' />
-We often think of DNA as a perfect, smooth double helix. In reality, DNA has a lot of local structure. The small piece of DNA shown here, [[1bna]], shows some of the common variations. At the top, <scene name='DNA/Dna_bend/5'> the helix is bent to the left</scene>, distorted by the way that the helices are packed into the crystal. At the bottom, two of the bases are strongly <scene name='DNA/Dna_propeller_twist/2'>propeller twisted</scene> --they are not in one perfect plane. This improves the way that the bases stack on top of one another along each strand, stabilizing the whole double helix. As more and more structures of DNA are studied, it is becoming clear that DNA is a dynamic molecule, quite flexible on its own, which is bent, kinked, knotted and unknotted, unwound and rewound by the proteins that interact with it.
+We often think of DNA as a perfect, smooth double helix. In reality, DNA has a lot of local structure. The small piece of DNA shown here, [[1bna]], shows some of the common variations. At the top, <scene name='DNA/Dna_bend/5'> the helix is bent to the left</scene>, distorted by the way that the helices are packed into the crystal. At the bottom, two of the bases are strongly <scene name='DNA/Dna_propeller_twist/3'>propeller twisted</scene> --they are not in one perfect plane. This improves the way that the bases stack on top of one another along each strand, stabilizing the whole double helix. As more and more structures of DNA are studied, it is becoming clear that DNA is a dynamic molecule, quite flexible on its own, which is bent, kinked, knotted and unknotted, unwound and rewound by the proteins that interact with it.
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