Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42169407›Full record

ArticleBiophysical journal2026

Visualizing poloidal orientation in DNA minicircles.

Tony Lemos, Harold D Kim

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Biophysical journal, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Tony LemosSchool of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0430, USA.
Harold D KimSchool of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0430, USA. Electronic address: harold.kim@physics.gatech.edu.

Funding

Investigation of energetics of sharp DNA bendingR01GM112882 · NIGMS · GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · PI KIM, HAROLD D · 2015 to 2023
$2.6M
NIGMS NIH HHS R01 GM112882
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

A short (<150 bp) double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) molecule ligated end to end forms a DNA minicircle. Due to sequence-dependent, nonuniform bending energetics, such a minicircle is predicted to adopt a certain inside-out orientation, known as the poloidal orientation. Despite theoretical and computational predictions, experimental evidence for this phenomenon has been lacking. In this study, we introduce a single-molecule approach to visualize the poloidal orientation of DNA minicircles. We constructed a set of DNA minicircles, each containing a single biotin located at a different position along one helical turn of the dsDNA and imaged the location of biotin-bound NeutrAvidin relative to the DNA minicircle using atomic force microscopy (AFM). We applied this approach to two DNA sequences previously predicted to exhibit strongly preferred poloidal orientations. The observed relative positions of NeutrAvidin shifted between the inside and outside of the minicircle with different phases, indicating distinct poloidal orientations for the two sequences. Coarse-grained simulations revealed narrowly distributed poloidal orientations with different mean orientations for each sequence, consistent with the AFM results. Together, our findings provide experimental confirmation of preferred poloidal orientations in DNA minicircles, offering insights into the intrinsic dynamics of circular DNA.

Indexed as

DNA, CircularNucleic Acid ConformationAvidinBiotinMicroscopy, Atomic ForceAvidinBiotinDNA, Circularneutravidin

Identifiers

PMID42169407
PMCPMC13288223

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.