Before revision:  while whether such defects can be excited under the level of DNA bending in those experiments has remained unclearand been debated. Interestingly, due to experimental design DNA contained pre-existing nicks in nearly all those experiments, while the potential effect of nicks have never been considered  .
After revision:  while whether such defects can be excited under the level of DNA bending in these experiments remains unclear. Intriguingly, the DNA contained preexisting nicks in most of these experiments but whether nicks might play a role in flexibility has never been considered .