Olson W K
Department of Chemistry, Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, Piscataway 08855-0939, USA.
Curr Opin Struct Biol. 1996 Apr;6(2):242-56. doi: 10.1016/s0959-440x(96)80082-0.
The past year has witnessed the development of several new mathematical approaches to analyzing the structure of double-helical DNA and to incorporating the sequence-dependent features of the chain in computer simulations of long polymers. Of special interest in this respect are the local and global structural changes induced by the binding of various proteins to DNA, ranging from subtle bending, untwisting and sliding motions at the base-pair level to the apparent organization of supercoiled structure in chains that are thousands residues long. The computational effort has also included both new ways to incorporate the polyelectrolyte character of DNA and other environmental forces in simulations of long chains and new methods to keep track of the multitude of configurations so generated. The collective advances are pointing to ways that will soon connect the sequences of base pairs in large genomes to folded three-dimensional structures based on natural bending, twisting and translational tendencies and in response to deformations produced by the binding of different proteins.
在过去的一年里，出现了几种新的数学方法，用于分析双螺旋DNA的结构，并将链的序列依赖性特征纳入长聚合物的计算机模拟中。在这方面，特别令人感兴趣的是各种蛋白质与DNA结合所引起的局部和全局结构变化，范围从碱基对水平上微妙的弯曲、解旋和滑动运动，到数千个残基长的链中超螺旋结构的明显组织。计算工作还包括在长链模拟中纳入DNA的聚电解质特性和其他环境力的新方法，以及跟踪由此产生的大量构型的新方法。这些共同的进展正在指明一些途径，这些途径将很快把大基因组中的碱基对序列与基于自然弯曲、扭转和平移趋势以及对不同蛋白质结合产生的变形做出响应的折叠三维结构联系起来。
