Ghirlando Rodolfo, Felsenfeld Gary
Laboratory of Molecular Biology, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892.
Biopolymers. 2013 Dec;99(12):910-5. doi: 10.1002/bip.22311.
Studies of the physical properties of nucleic acids began almost immediately following the discovery of the DNA structure. Early investigations focused on the stability and specificity of multi-strand polynucleotide complexes, then gradually on their interaction with other molecules, particularly proteins. As molecular and structural biology expanded to provide detailed information about biochemical mechanisms, physical studies eventually acquired the additional constraint that they should be relevant to functioning biological systems. We describe work in our laboratory that began with investigations of relatively simple questions about the role of electrostatic interactions in the stabilization of multi-strand nucleic acid structures, and evolved to studies of chromatin structure in vitro and within the nucleus.
在DNA结构被发现后不久，对核酸物理性质的研究就几乎立即展开了。早期的研究集中在多链多核苷酸复合物的稳定性和特异性上，然后逐渐转向它们与其他分子，特别是蛋白质的相互作用。随着分子和结构生物学的扩展，以提供有关生化机制的详细信息，物理研究最终增加了一项额外的限制，即它们应该与功能正常的生物系统相关。我们描述了我们实验室的工作，这项工作始于对静电相互作用在多链核酸结构稳定中作用的相对简单问题的研究，并发展到对体外和细胞核内染色质结构的研究。
