Study on the genetic information carried in DNA conformation and physical properties

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The T20 is a synthetic 180 by bent DNA fragment that mimics a part of left-handed supercoils. T20 can activate transcription by organizing local chromatin structure in HeLa cells. This study investigated whether T20 could activate transcription in the genome of mouse ES cells. T20 was found to activate the adjacent promoter even in the ES cells. Furthermore, the function of T20 was maintained even when the cells were differentiated into hepatocytes. We also investigated the locus of the reporter by using lacO/lacI-GFP transgene detection system. We constructed a tandem-repeat of the lac operator sequences(64 repeats), ligated it to the reporter construct, and integrated the resulting construct into the genome of ES cells. The T20-containing reporter was found located in the periphery of the nucleus.II. Genetic information carried in physical properties of DNAWe made a program that can calculate the flexibility profile of a given DNA. Using it, we investigated the flexibility profiles of all of the recombination hot spots of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome 3. These sites were indicated to be slightly more flexible when compared to the average flexibility of the yeast genome. In addition, we found that the exons are more flexible than the introns. This difference may function as a signal for some proteins to distinguish these two regions.