Strick T R, Allemand J F, Bensimon D, Croquette V
LPS, ENS, UMR 8550 CNRS, Paris, France.
Annu Rev Biophys Biomol Struct. 2000;29:523-43. doi: 10.1146/annurev.biophys.29.1.523.
The ability to manipulate, stretch and twist biomolecules opens the way to an understanding of their structural transitions. We review some of the recently discovered stress-induced structural transitions in DNA as well as the application of single molecule manipulation techniques to DNA unzipping and to the study of protein folding/unfolding transitions.