The mechanical properties of RNA-DNA hybrid duplex stretched by magnetic-tweezers (Biophysical Journal)

RNA can anneal to its DNA template to generate an RNA-DNA hybrid (RDH) duplex and a displaced DNA strand, termed R-loop. RDH duplex occupies up to 5% of the mammalian genome and plays important roles in many biological processes. The functions of RDH duplex are affected by its mechanical properties including the elasticity and the conformation transitions. The mechanical properties of RDH duplex, however, are still unclear. In this work, we studied the mechanical properties of RDH duplex using magnetic-tweezers in comparisons with those of DNA and RNA duplexes with the same sequences.