In bioinformatics, SIDD is short for Stress-Induced (DNA) Duplex Destabilization. It is the melting of the DNA which is not induced by a promoter, but purely by the superhelical nature of the DNA. It is based on a statistical mechanics treatment of DNA made by Craig J. Benham and Richard M. Fye. This stress-induced unwinding was shown to coincide with DNA promoter regions of bacterial plasmids and may direct the global response of cells to changes in their external environments by affecting which genes are transcribed.