Abstract
Torsional stress in DNA plays a significant role in regulating gene expression in prokaryotes. It has been known for more than a decade that different promoters show a differential response to the level of in vivo supercoiling in E. coli (Smith et al., 1978), and extensive studies indicate that the in vivo level of supercoiling itself is tightly regulated (Menzel and Geliert, 1983). In E. coli and other bacteria the amount of torsional stress is sufficient (Sinden et al., 1980) to favor the formation of locally untwisted alternate DNA structures. The energetic cost of forming these from the normal unconstrained DNA double helix is more than compensated for by relief of some of the excess torsional tension in the DNA (Cantor and Efstratiadis, 1984).
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© 1988 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.
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Cantor, C.R. et al. (1988). Torsional Stress, Unusual DNA Structures, and Eukaryotic Gene Expression. In: Wells, R.D., Harvey, S.C. (eds) Unusual DNA Structures. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3800-3_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3800-3_5
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