University of Illinois at Chicago

Micromechanical study of DNA-protein interactions and chromosome structure

Abstract: I will discuss the use of micromechanical experiments - essentially measurements of elasticity - as methods to study how DNA is organized, ultimately into chromosomes. I will discuss studies at three scales of complexity. First, results of single-DNA micromanipulation experiments to study proteins which compact DNA by bending it will be presented. Next, I will show how similar techniques can be applied to the study of the dynamics of assembly of chromatin fiber onto a single DNA molecule. Finally I will describe experiments which probe the internal organization of entire chromosomes isolated from dividing cells.

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