Tunable elliptical cylinders for rotational mechanical studies of single DNA molecules
Yifeng Hong, Fan Ye, Xiang Gao, James T. Inman, Michelle D. Wang · 2024
Read Tunable elliptical cylinders for rotational mechanical studies of single DNA molecules by Yifeng Hong, Fan Ye, Xiang Gao, James T. Inman, Michelle D. Wang (2024) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-11641005.txt.
Description
Yifeng Hong and co-authors present a 2024 study of tiny tools for twisting single DNA molecules. The angular optical trap holds and rotates a DNA strand to study its topology. Quartz cylinders used as handles rotate too slowly and laser damage limits sessions. The team designs small elliptical cylinders from layered materials instead. Alternating silica and silicon nitride layers tune how the particles grip light. Their stretched shape converts that grip into torque.
The new handles spin about three times faster than quartz without slipping. Torque readings also resolve finer detail during rotation. Biophysicists get handles matched to the fast twisting that enzymes perform on DNA. Speed matters because slow handles smear the very events under study. Less laser damage extends observation time on a single molecule, which is where rare events appear.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Yifeng Hong, Fan Ye, Xiang Gao, James T. Inman, Michelle D. Wang |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2024 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 32 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |