Revolutionary approach: A New DNA structure!!!

Our DNA lies deep inside the cells. The précised instructions about how our bodies are built and their function is being provided by the 6 billion A, G, C ant T letters present in our DNA code. In 1953, when James Watson and Francis Crick prominently encountered the iconic ‘Double helix’ structure of DNA, it seized the public imagination. It's now notable that short stretches of DNA can subsist in other structures, at least in the laboratory and scientists doubt that these different structures might play a key role in reading the DNA code. This new structure glances absolutely unalike to that double-stranded DNA double helix. The associate professor Daniel Christ, who co-led the research said that when most of people think of DNA, they think of the double helix but this novel research evoke that a completely different shape of DNA exist and which could be important for the living cells. Associate Professor Marcel Dinger said that the i-motif is a four-stranded 'knot' of DNA. This is very different from a double helix, where 'letters' on opposite strands recognize each other, and where C bind to G whereas C letters on the same strand of DNA bind to each other in the knot structure. Although the i-motif have been seen before and have studied it in detail by the researchers but it has only been observed in vitro.

Actually, scientists in the field have controverted whether i-motif 'knots' would exist at all inside living things- the question that is resolved by the new findings. A precise new tool has been developed by the researchers to detect the i-motifs inside cells i.e. a fragment of an antibody molecule. It could specifically identify and attach to i-motifs with a very high harmony. The lack of an antibody that is specific for i-motifs has severely hindered the understanding of their role. Critically, the antibody fragment neither detects DNA in helical form, nor identified G-quadruplex structures. The researchers uncovered the location of 'i-motifs' in a range of human cell lines with this new tool & used fluorescence techniques to speck out where the i-motifs were detected, they identified innumerable spots of green within the nucleus, which specify the position of i-motifs. The most exciting thing was seen that the green spots were appearing and disappearing over time so it was concluded that that they were forming, dissolving and again forming. The i-motifs mostly form at a particular point in the life cycle of cell i.e. the late G1 phase, when DNA is being actively read. They also present that i-motifs appear in some promoter regions and in telomeres. The appearing and disappearing of the i-motifs is an indication to their function. It seems like they are there to help switch genes on or off, and to affect whether a gene is actively read or not. Due to the transient nature of the i-motifs it has been so very difficult to trace down in cells until now. It is very electrifying to reveal a complete novel form of DNA in cells and this finding will set the platform for a whole new push to understand what this new DNA shape is really for, and whether it will impact on health and disease.