Biomedical subjects

G N Giaever

Publications and source records attributed to G N Giaever.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1988

Supercoiling of intracellular DNA can occur in eukaryotic cells.

The supercoiling of 2 micron DNA in yeast by a process or processes that generate positively and negatively supercoiled domains was shown by the use of yeast DNA topoisomerase mutants expressing Escherichia coli DNA topoisomerase I, an enzyme that relaxes negative supercoils specifically. Intracellular 2 micron DNA becomes positively supercoiled in yeast top1 top2 ts strains expressing the E. coli enzyme when neither one of the yeast DNA topoisomerases I and II is functional. Examination of the linking number distributions of plasmids bearing the inducible promoters of GAL1 and GAL10 genes indicates that the generation of supercoiled domains of opposite signs is related to transcription.

DNA Topoisomerases, Type I↗

PubMed1988

Action at a distance along a DNA.

A number of ways are known by which an event at one location on a DNA molecule can affect an event at a distant location on the same molecule. Three classes of mechanisms are described for such distal actions: tracking or translocation of a protein along a DNA, the association of two proteins bound at separate sites to form a DNA loop in between, and distal interactions that are affected by the topology of the DNA. The basic characteristics of each type of mechanism are discussed in terms of the known physicochemical properties of DNA. The various modes of action at a distance are often interrelated. Examples include the formation of positively and negatively supercoiled DNA loops by tracking and the strong effects of DNA topology on looping.

DNA↗

PubMed1988

DNA supercoiling in vivo.

DNA topoisomerase mutants of Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae were used to study the topological state of intracellular DNA. In E. coli, it is shown that switching off the gene topA encoding DNA topoisomerase I leads to an increase in the degree of negative supercoiling of intracellular DNA and inhibition of the growth of the cells: a d(pCpG)16.d(pCpG)16 sequence on a plasmid is also shown to flip from a right-handed B-helical structure to a left-handed Z-helical structure in vivo when topA is switched off. In S. cerevisiae, the topological state of intracellular DNA is little affected by the cellular levels of the topoisomerases.

DNA Topoisomerases, Type I↗