Scientists have known for some time that the DNA molecule can bend and flex, in a manner similar to a rope ladder, but throughout these gyrations its building blocks called bases remain paired up just the way they were originally described by James Watson and Francis Crick, who proposed the spiral-staircase structure in 1953. But using an adaptation of the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology, Hashim M. Al-Hashimi, the Robert L. Kuczkowski Professor of Chemistry and professor of biophysics at U-M, and his group observed transient, alternative forms in which some steps on the stairway came apart and reassembled into stable structures other than the typical Watson-Crick base pairs.
To learn more about this research, see the U-M news story "DNA caught rock 'n rollin."
>> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110128104244.htm
[This work was supported by the National Science Foundation's Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program, grants MCB 06-44278 and CHE 09-18817.] (Date of Image: October 2010)
Credit: Evgenia Nikolova, Al-Hashimi Lab, University of Michigan
