AI and advanced microscopy reveal tangled DNA structures with nanometer precision

At school, it is often presented as an ordered double Helisa, but scientists reveal a variety of and complex shapes of DNA molecules.

DNA is a molecule found in almost every live cell. Because the molecule is long, it ends on itself and is tangled. Enzymes in the body try to regulate this process, but if this fails, you can disturb normal activity in the cell, which causes bad health and can be a factor of diseases such as cancer and neurodegeneration.

To find medicine for the main diseases, scientists must understand the complex shape of DNA entangles. Existing laboratory techniques allow them to delete the shape and structure of tangled DNA, but it is labor -intensive and time consuming.

The International Scientific Team led by the University of Sheffield in Great Britain automated this process. Using the so -called atomic force microscope, advanced computer software and AI – are able to visualize DNA molecules, follow their paths and measure them.

Understanding the way the DNA shape changes, the field of science known as DNA topology, requires researchers to conduct an analysis in Nanoskala, in which the nanometer has one billion meters.

Alice Pyne, a professor of biophysics from the University of Sheffield, who supervised the research, said: “For the first time we were able to determine the structure of individual complex DNA structures found in cells with the precision of the nanometer. We did this by developing advanced new tools for image analysis, which they can do in a few seconds that could take hours.

“This will allow us to check what complex structures can arise in the cell during normal and abnormal cellular processes, such as DNA replication and understanding of their implications. From then on, we can start looking at how these complex topologies and structures affect proteins affecting genome, for example, key antibiotics and anti -cargo targets, such as topoisomerase (enzyme, which took into account genome).

Dr. Sean Colloms, from the School of Molecular Bioscience at the University of Glasgow and co -author of the study, said: “DNA is a really long molecule. Like every long piece of string, DNA in our cells is tangled and tied. If we want to examine processes in cells that lead to DNA cells, as well In the spine, we must be possible to determine how it could be possible so that you could determine how to determine the DNA is tangled.

“At each DNA transition, we can see which piece of bottom goes through, and this even allows us to distinguish one node from its mirror image, which is important in our research.”

The atomic force microscope uses a small probe to physically measure the analyzed object – instead of light or electrons, as in other types of microscope. This difference makes it suitable for analysis of nanoskal.

“Molecular simulations help us understand how DNA interacts with Mika surfaces in Afm experiments,” said Dušan Račko from the Polmer Institute of Slovak of the Sciences Academy, which was involved in the study. “When developing advanced models, we can generate thousands of molecular structures to train future AI frames – bringing us closer to the visualization and understanding of the topology of complex DNA teams.”

The study is the culmination of international research cooperation with the participation of scientists from 6 universities and research institutes from all over Great Britain, Slovakia and France.