Facilitating structural transitions in DNA

Facilitating structural transitions in DNA.

A t one time, the structure of DNA was blissfully simple. It was elegant, regular, and universal—quite unlike the structures of proteins, which were complicated, highly varied, and full of peculiarities consistent with their multifarious functions. DNA was a plectonemic double helix of 10 nucleotide pairs per turn (a nice round number) containing planar base pairs stacked neatly perpendicular t...

DNA structural transitions within the PKD1 gene

Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) affects over 500 000 Americans. Eighty-five percent of these patients have mutations in the PKD1 gene. The focal nature of cyst formation has recently been attributed to innate instability in the PKD1 gene. Intron 21 of this gene contains the largest polypurine. polypyrimidine tract (2.5 kb) identified to date in the human genome. Polypurine....

Facilitating transitions: redefinition of the nursing mission.

T here have been numerous dialogues in nursing about its mission and definition, but a refinement of existing definitions has yet to be offered. This article is written with the goal of maintaining a vigorous discourse. The phenomena of concern to the discipline of nursing that have been described by various theorists, and generally accepted by members of the discipline, are health, person, env...

Structural transitions in solids.

Ethanol-induced structural transitions of DNA on mica.

The effect of ethanol on the structure of DNA confined to mica in the presence of Mg2+was examined by varying the ethanol concentration and imaging the DNA by atomic force microscopy. Contour length measurements of the DNA show a transition from all-B-form at 0% ethanol to all-A-form at >25% ethanol. At intermediate ethanol concentrations, contour lengths suggest that individual molecules of ai...