Honey, I shrunk the DNA: DNA length as a probe for nucleic‐acid enzyme activity

The replication, recombination, and repair of DNA are processes essential for the maintenance of genomic information and require the activity of numerous enzymes that catalyze the polymerization or digestion of DNA. This review will discuss how differences in elastic properties between single‐ and double‐stranded DNA can be used as a probe to study the dynamics of these enzymes at the single‐molecule level. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 85: 144–153, 2007. This article was originally published online as an accepted preprint. The “Published Online” date corresponds to the preprint version. You can request a copy of the preprint by emailing the Biopolymers editorial office at biopolymers@wiley.com