Abstract
We have pulled apart the two strands of a DNA double helix. The forces measured during this process show a sequence specific variation on the piconewton scale. Opening two helical molecules with the same sequence from opposite sides gives two signatures which are not simply related by symmetry. In a theoretical model, this is explained as a molecular stick-slip motion which does not involve instabilities and is determined by the sequence.
- Received 17 March 1997
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.79.4489
©1997 American Physical Society