Researchers from the University of Barcelona and the University of California, San Francisco have captured the first high resolution images of DNA unfolding.

The team studied a small DNA fragment consisting of 12 base pairs (the human genomes has about 3,000 million base pairs) and obtained 10 million structural snapshots of how DNA unfolds. In this process they revealed the two main ways by which the natural folded structure move to an unfolded state.  The results of the research were published in Angewandte Chemie.

The project is part of a larger effort to "understand the changes that the DNA structure undergoes in biological processes that occur within the cell, such as the expression and repression of genes or DNA replication and transcription.," said Modesto Orozco, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Barcelona.



DNA holds the genetic information of all living organisms and its double helical structure was discovered more than 50 years ago by Watson and Crick. DNA and the proteins that modify it are the most important therapeutic targets in several pathologies,  particularly in cancer.

The work performed at the University of Barcelona provides a detailed view of the mechanism through which one of the most crucial processes in DNA occurs, and opens up new prospects regarding the connection between physical properties, functionality and pharmacological effect. The final objective is to turn DNA into a universal pharmacological target, the researchers say.


Citation: Alberto Perez, Modesto Orozco, 'Real-Time Atomistic Description of DNA Unfolding', Angewandte Chemie, May 2010; doi:10.1002/ange.201000593