DNA supercoil introduced to directly visualize individual plectonemes along supercoiled DNA which would further allow to study the interactions of DNA processing proteins with supercoiled DNA. In that study, Sytox Orange (an intercalating dye), has been used to induce supercoiling on surface tethered DNA molecules. DNA supercoiling is important for DNA packaging within all cells. Because the length of DNA can be thousands of times that of a cell, packaging this genetic material into the cell or nucleus (in eukaryotes) is a difficult feat. Supercoiling of DNA reduces the space and allows for DNA to be packaged. In prokaryotes, plectonemic supercoils are
Host-Cell Reactivation damage is used as mutagen, the cell uses nucleotide excision repair NER pathway, that is activated by distortion in the DNA helix. The Host-Cell Reactivation Assay or HCR is a technique used to measure the DNA repair capacity of cell of a particular DNA alteration. In the HCR assay the ability of an intact cell to repair exogenous DNA is measured The host cell is transfected with a damaged plasmid containing a reporter gene, usually luciferase, which has been deactivated due to the damage. The ability of the cell to repair the damage in the plasmid, after it has been