July 14, 2009 The interaction represented produced the famous
explanation of the structure of DNA, but the model pictured is a
stiff snapshot of idealized DNA. As researchers from Baylor
College of Medicine and the University of Houston note in a
report that appears online in the journal Nucleic Acids
Research, DNA is not a stiff or static. It is dynamic with high
energy. It exists naturally in a slightly underwound state and
its status changes in waves generated by normal cell functions
such as DNA replication, transcription, repair and
recombination. DNA is also accompanied by a cloud of counterions
(charged particles that neutralize the genetic material's very
negative charge) and, of course, the protein macromolecules that
affect DNA activity. "Many models and experiments have been
interpreted with the static model," said Dr. Lynn Zechiedrich,
associate professor of molecular virology and microbiology at
BCM and a senior author of the report. "But this model does not
allow for the fact that DNA in real li