a specialist term for
melt,
unfold or
break-up. Applied specifically to
molecules - especially those that are connected by
hydrogen bonds. The non-denatured state is known as the
native state (or N) and this is the active situation. when a protein is
denatured it is not destroyed, or broken into the smallest of pieces. It is the organisation of the native state that is destroyed. From a coherent, woven structure a
denaturing agent produces a jumbled mess. For
DNA, this is less destructive - necessary even. The separate strands of the double helix can come apart and rejoin with much less tangle; an essential part of the
copying process, where each denatured strand
templates the formation of a new double structure.