General

Cozzarelli, N.R., and J.C. Wang, eds. 1990. DNA Topology and Its Biological Effects. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. A definitive resource.

Kornberg, A., and T.A. Baker. 1991. DNA Replication, 2nd ed. New York: W.H. Freeman & Company. A good place to start for further information on the structure and function of DNA.

DNA Supercoiling

Boles, T.C., J.H. White, and N.R. Cozzarelli. 1990. Structure of plectonemically supercoiled DNA. J. Mol. Biol. 213:931–951. A study that defines several fundamental features of supercoiled DNA.

Garcia H.G., P. Grayson, L. Han, M. Inamdar, J. Kondev, P.C. Nelson, R. Phillips, W. Widom, and P.A. Wiggins. 2007. Biological consequences of tightly bent DNA: The other life of a macromolecular celebrity. Biopolymers 85:115–130. A nice description of the physics of bent DNA.

Lebowitz, J. 1990. Through the looking glass: The discovery of supercoiled DNA. Trends Biochem. Sci. 15:202–207. A short and interesting historical note.

Marko, J.F. 2007. Torque and dynamics of linking number relaxation in stretched supercoiled DNA. Phys. Rev. E76(2, Pt. 1):021926. A quantitative look at DNA properties.

Proteins Involved in DNA Compaction

Berger, J.M. 1998. Type II DNA topoisomerases. Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol. 8:26–32.

Champoux, J.J. 2001. DNA topoisomerases: Structure, function, and mechanism. Annu. Rev. Biochem. 70:369–413. An excellent summary of the topoisomerase classes.

Hirano, T. 2006. At the heart of the chromosome: SMC proteins in action. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 7:311–322.

Nitiss, J.L. 2009. DNA topoisomerase II and its growing repertoire of biological functions. Nat. Rev. Cancer 9:327–337.

Pommier, Y. 2009. DNA topoisomerase I inhibitors: Chemistry, biology, and interfacial inhibition. Chem. Rev. 109:2894–2902.

Thanbichler, M. 2009. Closing the ring: A new twist to bacterial chromosome condensation. Cell 137:598–600.

Wang, J.C. 2002. Cellular roles of DNA topoisomerases: A molecular perspective. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 3:430–440.

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