Researchers examined three-dimensional pictures of supercoiled DNA and found that it could change its shape in a number of ways that go beyond the double helix model by Watson and Crick. The discovery has been published online in the journal Nature Communications.

Before conducting the research, researchers from Baylor College of Medicine captured detailed three-dimensional images of various DNA shapes by using a microscopy technique. After that, researchers from University of Leeds analyzed the images using supercomputer simulations.

According to the researchers, what they noticed turned their conception of DNA’s stable double helix structure. The substance that they noticed was a wiggling, dynamic and morphing substance that constantly changed its shape.

While providing more information on the discovery, Dr. Sarah Harris, researcher at the University of Leeds’ School of Physics and Astronomy and computer simulation leader, said when American biologist James Watson and English physicist Francis Crick explained the DNA helix, they saw a small portion of a real genome, just one turn of the double helix. About a dozen DNA ‘base pairs’ are the building blocks of DNA, Harris added.

“The new research, on the other hand, provides a much broader, more detailed look at several hundred base pairs. Even that much of an increase in size reveals a whole new richness in the behavior of the DNA molecule,” Harris said.

Dr. Rossitza Irobalieva, co-lead author and researcher from Baylor, created three-dimensional images of single circular DNA molecules using ‘cry-electron tomography’.

“When Watson and Crick described the DNA helix, they were looking at a tiny part of a real genome, only about one turn of the double helix,” explains computer simulation leader Dr. Sarah Harris from the University of Leeds’ School of Physics and Astronomy, in the statement. “This is about 12 DNA ‘base pairs,’ which are the building blocks of DNA that form the rungs of the helical ladder.”

“This is because the action of drug molecules relies on them recognizing a specific molecular shape—much like a key fits a particular lock,” explains Dr. Harris.