Abstract
The advantages of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) for the study of surface structure down to atomic level, such as simplicity of operation, Ångstrom resolution, and imaging in a variety of environments, including air or liquids (Binnig and Rohrer, 1986; Hansma and Tersoff, 1987), has greatly encouraged scientists to analyze the structural details of biological materials using STM. Objects of earlier researches in life sciences included bacteriophage virus particles (Baro et al., 1987), metal-shadowed recA-DNA complexes (Amerein et al., 1988) and native closed circular DNA. The latest development in this field is the direct observation of native DNA structure without metal shadowing (Beebe et al., 1988). In this work, although the major groove and minor groove of DNA, as well as the pitch of helix turn could be resolved, the pitch of the DNA helix turn varies greatly and measurement of the width of grooves was not possible. We have tried to modify our experimental conditions such as the size and concentration of DNA as well as ionic strength of solvent with success.
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© 1990 Plenum Press, New York
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Min-qian, L. et al. (1990). The Fine Structure of Native DNA Studied with the Scanning Tunneling Microscope. In: Harris, J.R., Zbarsky, I.B. (eds) Nuclear Structure and Function. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0667-2_59
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0667-2_59
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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