DNA liquid crystalline blue phases. Electron microscopy evidence and biological implications
作者:
Amélie Leforstier,
Françoise Livolant,
期刊:
Liquid Crystals
(Taylor Available online 1994)
卷期:
Volume 17,
issue 5
页码: 651-658
ISSN:0267-8292
年代: 1994
DOI:10.1080/02678299408037336
出版商: Taylor & Francis Group
数据来源: Taylor
摘要:
The isotropic-liquid crystalline transition of concentrated DNA solutions is investigated using freeze-fracture electron microscopy in order to understand the first steps of the DNA condensation process. Between the isotropic liquid and the cholesteric mesophase, we report the existence of double twist DNA bundles and describe their long range ordering into 3D networks. This organization corresponds to the formation of ‘blue phases’ already observed in thermotropic liquid crystals, but never reported in lyotropic systems. In addition, the size of the DNA molecule, about ten times that of most thermotropic materials, allows here the molecular resolution imaging of blue phase structures. Since such structures recall chromatin organization of some Procaryotes and lower Eucaryotes, we suspect that they may be widespread and of potential interest in the regulation of chromatin functions.
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