Rotational drag on DNA: a single molecule experiment - PubMed (original) (raw)
Rotational drag on DNA: a single molecule experiment
Philippe Thomen et al. Phys Rev Lett. 2002.
Abstract
Within a single-molecule configuration, we have studied rotational drag on double stranded linear DNA by measuring the force during mechanical opening and closing of the double helix at different rates. The molecule is cranked at one end by the effect of unzipping and is free to rotate at the other end. In this configuration the rotational friction torque tau on double-stranded DNA leads to an additional contribution to the opening force. It is shown that the effect of rotational drag increases with the length of the molecule, is approximately proportional to the angular velocity of cranking, and we estimate that the torque tau is of the order of 1k(B)T for 10 000 base pairs of DNA cranked at 2000 turns per second.
Comment in
- Comment on "Rotational drag on DNA: a single molecule experiment".
Nelson P. Nelson P. Phys Rev Lett. 2004 Apr 16;92(15):159801; author reply 159802. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.159801. Epub 2004 Apr 16. Phys Rev Lett. 2004. PMID: 15169326 No abstract available.
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