Organization of DNA in chromatin.

Conformational changes in DNA that accompany drug intercalation have led us to ask if DNA first bends or "kinks" to accept an intercalative drug or dye. Kinking is made possible by altering the normal C2' endo deoxyribose sugar ring puckering in B DNA to a mixed sugar puckering pattern of the type C3' and partially unstacking base-pairs. A kinking scheme such as this would require minimal stereochemical rearrangement and would also involve small energies. This has prompted us to ask more generally if a conformational change such as this could be used by proteins in their interactions with nucleic acids. In this papter we describe an interesting superhelical DNA structure formed by kinking DNA every 10 base-pairs. The structure may be used in the organization of DNA in chromatin.