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The highly concentrated liquid-crystalline phase of DNA is columnar hexagonal

Nature volume 339, pages 724–726 (1989)Cite this article

Abstract

THE DNA molecule is extremely compacted in bacteria, in cell nuclei, sperm heads and virus capsids. These interactions between DNA molecules are important to our understanding of chromatin condensation. DNA forms multiple liquid-crystalline phases whose nature depends on the polymer concentration1–12, and it has been suggested that the highly concentrated phase of 50-nm DNA molecules is two-dimensionally ordered and smectic-like13. We rule out this smectic hypothesis and demonstrate by polarizing microscopy, electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction that this phase is characterized by a columnar longitudinal order and a hexagonal lateral order, with intermolecular distances ranging from 2.8 to 4.0 nm depending on the DNA concentration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre de Biologie Cellulaire (CNRS), 67 rue Maurice Günsbourg, 94200, Ivry-sur-Seine, France

    F. Livolant

  2. Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Bâtiment 510, Université Paris-Sud, 91405, Orsay, France

    A. M. Levelut & J. Doucet

  3. LURE, Laboratoire CNRS-CEA-MEN, Bâtiment 209 D, Université Paris-Sud, 91405, Orsay, France

    J. Doucet & J. P. Benoit

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  1. F. Livolant
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  2. A. M. Levelut
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  3. J. Doucet
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  4. J. P. Benoit
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Livolant, F., Levelut, A., Doucet, J. et al. The highly concentrated liquid-crystalline phase of DNA is columnar hexagonal. Nature 339, 724–726 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/339724a0

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