Science Daily  October 17, 2019 Researchers at Cornell University have unraveled the mystery of how DNA’s double helix manage to replicate without being tangled up from a topological perspective. Using eukaryotes as their model system, they found that the intrinsic mechanical properties of the chromatin (a complex of DNA and proteins) determine how the chromatin fibers will entwine. This topology is crucial to the successful separation of newly replicated DNA: If the fibers twist too tightly too early, then the molecules are unable to properly segregate during cell division. They found that twisting a single chromatin fiber is much easier […]