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The two meters of -stretched- DNA contained in human cells are continuously twisting and untwisting to give access to genetic information: when a gene is expressed to generate a protein, the two strands of DNA are separated to give access to all the machinery necessary for this expression, resulting in an excessive accumulation of coiling that needs to be resolved later. The paper that has now been published by the team led by Felipe Cortés, head of the DNA Topology and Breaks Group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), in collaboration with Silvia Jimeno González, professor at the University of Seville and head of the mRNA Transcription and Processing Group at the Andalusian Centre for Molecular Biology and Regenerative Medicine (CABIMER), shows that this supercoiling characteristic of DNA's structure controls gene expression rather than being a mere collateral damage to be solved, as had been thought to date. The results are reported in the journal Cell Reports.