DNA, a long polymer made from nucleotide, is usually considered to have a double helix shape, but a new study showed that when DNA is looked at closely, it is found to have more complicated shape.

The study published in Nature Communications imaged the complex formations of DNA. Researchers of the study, with the help of computer simulations, examined how the shape of DNA wiggles and changes.

Sarah Harris, researcher at University of Leeds and lead author of the study, said when renowned biologist James Watson and physicist Francis Crick explained the DNA double helix, they described just a small part of a real genome. It may be just one turn of the double helix, Harris said. It is about twelve DNA ‘base pairs’, building blocks of DNA.

“Our study looks at DNA on a somewhat grander scale -- several hundreds of base pairs -- and even this relatively modest increase in size reveals a whole new richness in the behavior of the DNA molecule”, according to the lead author.

As about three billion base pairs structure DNA of a human, there is no surprise that the shape of DNA gets twisted. According to the study researchers, they discovered some complex shapes and found that they were changing rapidly. Now, the researchers hope that the discovery could help in developing better pharmaceuticals.

Harris said the researchers have decided to examine millions of pieces that are constantly changing their shapes.

"We are sure that supercomputers will play an increasingly important role in drug design. We are trying to do a puzzle with millions of pieces, and they all keep changing shape," Harris said.

"Some of the circles had sharp bends, some were figure-8s, and others looked like racquets or sewing needles. Some looked like rods because they were so coiled," said Rossitza N. Irobalieva, the co-lead author on the publication, who is also at Baylor.