Focus: DNA Need Not Unzip  Published April 20, 2001  |  Phys.
Rev. Focus 7, 19 (2001)  |  DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevFocus.7.19
Sequence Recognition in the Pairing of DNA Duplexes  A. A.
Kornyshev and S. Leikin  Published April 16, 2001 Figure 1
Double double helix. Two DNA segments with identical sequences
may be attracted to one another and line up groove-to-
groove–just as this pair does in the DNA packaging structure in
the cell nucleus.  When a cell’s DNA is damaged, its internal
construction crew goes to work. The cell can use its “backup”
copy of the genome as a template for repairs, but it needs to
locate the correct region of the undamaged DNA. In the 16 April
PRL a biophysics team proposes a new way that the search might
work. According to their model, the surface charges on two side-
by-side double helices create an attraction between the pair
when their sequences are aligned. The theory is speculative and
does not account for all of the complexities inside of real
cells, but it does suggest a mechanism b