Biophysical Journal 8: 1138-1145 (1968)
© 1968 the Biophysical Society

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Shear and the Melting of DNA

An Especially Sensitive Portion of the Escherichia coli Genome

ABSTRACT

The melting point of DNA is shown to be a function of shear stress. The higher the molecular weight of the DNA, the further its melting point is lowered by a given shear rate. During lysis of E. coli, a part of the DNA is especially shear sensitive, so that its melting curve in the presence of shear shows a low-melting region prior to the main transition. Lysis and dilution of the cell contents destroys the extra shear sensitivity, perhaps because the DNA dissociates from the cell membrane or from some other large subcellular structure. Such a structure would impart increased shear sensitivity to the associated region of the genome.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				B. H. Rosenberg and L. F. Cavalieri Shear Sensitivity of the E. coli Genome: Multiple Membrane Attachment Points of the E. coli DNA Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol, January 1, 1968; 33(0): 65 - 72. [Abstract] [PDF]