Scientists have taken the highest-resolution pictures of microscopic genes to date through new microscopy techniques, finding them “wrinkled, blistered, twisted, unnatural and strange” and writhing with activity.
“Seeing is believing, but for DNA in the microscopic world, it’s hard to see the full picture of its helical structure.” Alice Pyne, a materials scientist at The University of Sheffield and first author of the study, published Feb. 16 in Nature Communications, said, “The video we made The study will take the same video of the same DNA twist and turn.
The study will take many high-resolution still images of DNA within the same cell and feed them into a computer, combined with a molecular dynamics computer simulation system, to create a set of videos of how DNA moves at the microscopic level.
Co-investigator Agnes Noy of the University of York said the microscope photos and the simulation system worked well together, allowing them to “track the pattern of each atom wriggling within the DNA double helix.
Previously, scientists using microscopes to look at DNA could only see a static image of the molecule, knowing only that a large number of chromosomes were tightly and orderly folded and packed into a small space in the cell nucleus, but not its internal shape.
Recent studies have identified a type of DNA fragment shaped like a “minicircle. These chromosome fragments are linked at the head and tail, forming a small loop. Scientists believe that these ring-shaped chromosome structures are one of the important indicators of healthy cells.
The video presented in this study shows that some of the ring structures are more spacious and do not have a twisted pattern, and these DNA are relatively calm, while other ring structures are clearly twisted and are twisting very actively. The researchers speculate that these twists may be inextricably linked to the chromosome’s search for binding objects and its growth process.
Lynn Zechiedrich, a biologist at Baylor College of Medicine, says the new atomic force microscopy photos show in stunning detail the “wrinkled, blistered, twisted, unnatural and strange” forms of DNA mini-loops. Hopefully, we will have the ability to control these structures in the future.
The researchers say that a deeper understanding of these hidden mechanisms of DNA movement at the microscopic level will provide an important foundation for the development of powerful gene therapies and genetic diagnostics.
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