Conformational changes, enzymatic monitors

It has been proposed [18] that bis-benzimidazole dye molecules, when bound to the nuclear DNA of intact cells, elicit conformational changes which are enzymatically converted (with an efficiency dependent upon enzyme accessibility) to strand-breaks of alkali-labile sites. In agreement with this model, the three lines studied ranked in order of both the expressed frequency of ligand-induced breaks and the feature of chromatin accessibility as monitored by DNase II sensitivity. 

---