1 research outputs found
Effect of Temperature on the Intrinsic Flexibility of DNA and Its Interaction with Architectural Proteins
The
helical structure of double-stranded DNA is destabilized by
increasing temperature. Above a critical temperature (the melting
temperature), the two strands in duplex DNA become fully separated.
Below this temperature, the structural effects are localized. Using
tethered particle motion in a temperature-controlled sample chamber,
we systematically investigated the effect of increasing temperature
on DNA structure and the interplay between this effect and protein
binding. Our measurements revealed that (1) increasing temperature
enhances DNA flexibility, effectively leading to more compact folding
of the double-stranded DNA chain, and (2) temperature differentially
affects different types of DNA-bending chromatin proteins from mesophilic
and thermophilic organisms. Thus, our findings aid in understanding
genome organization in organisms thriving at moderate as well as extreme
temperatures. Moreover, our results underscore the importance of carefully
controlling and measuring temperature in single-molecule DNA (micromanipulation)
experiments