A single (or multiple?) 48 kb long dsDNA-molecule is stretched between optically trapped ca. 2 um diameter polystyrene beads. Copyright by the Optical-Tweezers team at the University of Helsinki, Finland. May 2009.
Here the upper trap is steered upwards slowly during stretching and then quickly back again for the next stretching-curve(no DNA-physics in that). It's not possible get the sequence from the force-extension curve. The curve is well described by the worm-like-chain model for polymers. Other labs have done unzipping experiments where a DNA or RNA hairpin is unfolded. There it is possible to see a difference between AT and GC base-pairs, but single base-pair spatial resolution is very challenging.
Here the upper trap is steered upwards slowly during stretching and then quickly back again for the next stretching-curve(no DNA-physics in that). It's not possible get the sequence from the force-extension curve. The curve is well described by the worm-like-chain model for polymers. Other labs have done unzipping experiments where a DNA or RNA hairpin is unfolded. There it is possible to see a difference between AT and GC base-pairs, but single base-pair spatial resolution is very challenging.
aewallin 1 year ago