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Direct Observation of Tube-Like Motion of a Single Polymer Chain
Abstract
Tube-like motion of a single, fluorescently labeled molecule of DNA in an entangled solution of unlabeled lambda-phage DNA molecules was observed by fluorescence microscopy. One end of a 16- to 100-micrometer-long DNA was attached to a 1-micrometer bead and moved with optical tweezers. The molecule was stretched into various conformations having bends, kinks, and loops. As the polymer relaxed, it closely followed a path defined by its initial contour. The relaxation time of the disturbance caused by the bead was roughly 1 second, whereas tube-like motion in small loops persisted for longer than 2 minutes. Tube deformation, constraint release, and excess chain segment diffusion were also observed. These observations provide direct evidence for several key assumptions in the reptation model developed by de Gennes, Edwards, and Doi.
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Cited by
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König, K. (2000) · Journal of Microscopy · doi:10.1046/j.1365-2818.2000.00738.x · Cited by 1,265
Recent Advances in Optical Tweezers
Moffitt, J. R., Chemla, Y. R., Smith, S. B., & Bustamante, C. (2008) · Annual Review of Biochemistry · doi:10.1146/annurev.biochem.77.043007.090225 · Cited by 1,084
Nobel Lecture: The manipulation of neutral particles
Chu, S. (1998) · Reviews of Modern Physics · doi:10.1103/revmodphys.70.685 · Cited by 919
Self-citationProbing Individual Molecules with Confocal Fluorescence Microscopy
Nie, S., Chiu, D. T., & Zare, R. N. (1994) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.7973650 · Cited by 549
Exactly Solvable Models for Many-Body Systems Far from Equilibrium
(2001) · Phase Transitions and Critical Phenomena · doi:10.1016/s1062-7901(01)80015-x · Cited by 451
Metadata
- Authors
- Perkins, T. T., Smith, D. E., & Chu, S.
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 1994-05-06
- Volume
- 264
- Issue
- 5160
- Pages
- 819-822
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- OpenAlex
- W2070154589
- Cited by
- 473
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 49.40
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- Perkins, T. T., Smith, D. E., & Chu, S. (1994). Direct Observation of Tube-Like Motion of a Single Polymer Chain. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.8171335
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