The Readers of 17th-Century English Manuscript Commonplace Book Hesperides, or the Muses’ Garden

Hesperides, or the Muses’ Garden is a 17th-century manuscript commonplace book known primarily for its Shakespearean connections. The readers of Hesperides generally combine reading and thinking, or reading and writing. Though few, Hesperides is not without its “fit audience.” In addition to the few modern scholars who have examined the manuscripts, the actual known readers of Hesperides include Humphrey Moseley the 17th-century publisher, James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps in the Victorian period, and a late-18th-century anonymous reader. The last of this group copies Shakespearean and dramatic extracts into the commonplace book and is identified through internal evidence based on paleography. The intended readers of Hesperides, including the Courtier, would make use of it as a linguistic aid, to learn how to speak and write well from literary models. They take the commonplace book as a reference library

Supercoiling Theory and Model of Chromosomal Structures in Eukaryotic Cells

About six billion base pairs of DNA reside highly orderly in each human cell’s nucleus through their manifestation as twenty-three pairs of chromosomes. Delicate patterns of spatial organizations of DNA macromolecules in these eukaryotic chromosomes as well as their associated physical driving forces have, however, not been fully understood thus far. On the basis of (1) our four recent discoveries about supercoiling properties of histone H1, nucleosomes, linker DNA and polynucleosomes, (2) well-accepted six axioms about signs, shapes and handedness of DNA supercoils, and (3) our three new prepositions about correlations between DNA supercoils and chromosomal structures, we formulate new theories and models of eukaryotic chromosomal structures in the current report. It is our conclusion that all levels of chromosomal structures in eukaryotic cells are governed mainly by negative supercoils that are present in their naked linker DNA regions

Presence of negative supercoiling in aggregates of histone H1-plasmidic polynucleosome complexes

It was shown in the past that in the presence of histone H1, plasmidic polynucleosomes formed densely packed aggregates. Our current studies demonstrate that these aggregates are susceptible to the actions of E. coli topoisomerase I, human topoisomerase I and DNA nicking enzyme, which is the indication that negative supercoiling is present in the condensed DNA-protein complexes. Since negative supercoiling leads to formation of highly curved and compact plectonemic and toroidal DNA structures, it would be reasonable to assume that DNA negative supercoils are responsible for aggregation of histone H1-plasmidic polynucleosome complexes.Accepted versio

Quantitative determination of linking number differences between circular polynucleosomes and histone H1-bound circular polynucleosomes

With the aim of discovering contribution of histone H1 to linking number changes of DNA, determination of linking number differences between histone H1-free circular polynucleosomes and histone H1-bound circular polynucleosomes was carried out during our investigations. Our results showed that on average, binding of ∼11.5 histone H1 molecules causes one linking number change in circular polynucleosomes in the presence of 1.5 mM spermidine. When concentrations of spermidine decreases or increases, these linking number differences decrease significantly. It is therefore evident that linking number changes caused by histone H1 are spermidine concentration-dependent.MOE (Min. of Education, S’pore)Accepted versio

Dataset on the effects of spermidine on linking number differences between histone H1-free and histone H1-bound circular polynucleosomes

The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled "Quantitative determination of linking number differences between circular polynucleosomes and histone H1-bound circular polynucleosomes" Zhang et al. (in press) [1]. DNA linking number differences between histone H1-free and histone H1-bound circular polynucleosomes at various spermidine concentrations was quantitatively determined by chloroquine-based gel electrophoretic analysis in this work, which provides information on the topological effects of histone H1 and spermidine on the linker DNA between nucleosomes.MOE (Min. of Education, S’pore)Published versio