North Carolina State University, Department of Physics, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, USA.
Phys Rev Lett. 2011 Jun 17;106(24):248103. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.248103. Epub 2011 Jun 16.
We report that double-stranded DNA collapses in the presence of ac electric fields at frequencies of a few hundred Hertz, and does not stretch as commonly assumed. In particular, we show that confinement-stretched DNA can collapse to about one quarter of its equilibrium length. We propose that this effect is based on finite relaxation times of the counterion cloud, and the subsequent partitioning of the molecule into mutually attractive units. We discuss alternative models of those attractive units.
我们报告称,在几百赫兹的交流电场中,双链 DNA 会发生坍塌,而不会像通常假设的那样伸展。具体来说,我们表明,受限制拉伸的 DNA 可以坍塌到其平衡长度的约四分之一。我们提出,这种效应基于抗衡离子云的有限弛豫时间,以及随后分子分裂成相互吸引的单元。我们讨论了这些吸引单元的替代模型。