Despite remarkable progress in genome science, we are still far from a clear understanding of how genomic DNA is packaged without entanglement into a nucleus, how genes are wrapped up in chromatin, how chromatin structure is faithfully inherited from mother to daughter cells, and how the differential expression of genes is enabled in a given cell type. Exploring and answering these questions constitutes one of the next frontiers in the 21st century.

We are just beginning to appreciate how Multifarious DNA structures provide additional structural and functional dimensions to chromatin organization and gene expression. DNA Conformation and Transcription is the first book that compiles the fruits of the studies that have been performed to date to solve the riddle 'written' in DNA conformation ("conformation code"). This book provides a comprehensive overview of the field by covering history of the field, up-to-date topics, clarifications of present day research, and future perspective of what is still to be discovered. Thus, it serves as an invaluable source of information on the "conformation code".

Focuses on functional aspects of DNA structures (conformations), rather than structure and conformation themselves Description of human triplet-repeat diseases and mechanisms of mammalian sex determination The first book to compile the results of +studies that have been performed to date to solve the riddle 'written' in DNA conformation Covers almost all of the "famous" DNA structures (conformations) and focuses on their functions in transcription

Inhalt
Multifarious DNA Structures Found In Genomes.- DNA.- Sequence-Dependent Variability of B-DNA.- Intrinsic DNA Curvature and Transcription.- Curved DNA and Prokaryotic Promoters.- Repression of Transcription by Curved DNA and Nucleoid Protein H-NS.- Curved DNA and Transcription in Eukaryotes.- Putative Roles of kin17, a Mammalian Protein Binding Curved DNA, in Transcription.- Implied Roles of Left-Handed Z-DNA, Triplex DNA, DNA Supercoiling, and Miscellaneous Alternative Conformations of DNA in Transcription.- Roles for Z-DNA and Double-Stranded RNA in Transcription.- Do DNA Triple Helices or Quadruplexes Have a Role in Transcription?.- Nucleic Acid Structures and the Transcription Defects in Fragile X Syndrome and Friedreich's Ataxia.- Possible Roles of DNA Supercoiling in Transcription.- DNA-Bending Proteins: Architectural Regulation of Transcription.- Gene Regulation by HMGA and HMGB Chromosomal Proteins and Related Architectural DNA-Binding Proteins.- Molecular Mechanisms of Male Sex Determination.- Chromatin Infrastructure in Transcription: Roles of DNA Conformation and Properties.- The Role of Unusual DNA Structures in Chromatin Organization for Transcription.- DNA Bendability and Nucleosome Positioning in Transcriptional Regulation.