Origin of the intrinsic rigidity of DNA. Export

@article{citeulike:944745, abstract = {The intrinsic rigidities of DNA and RNA helices are generally thought to arise from some combination of vertical base-stacking interactions and intra-helix phosphate-phosphate charge repulsion; however, the relative contributions of these two types of interaction to helix rigidity have not been quantified. To address this issue, we have measured the rotational decay times of a 'gapped-duplex' DNA molecule possessing a central, single-stranded region, dT24, before and after addition of the free purine base, N6-methyladenine ((me)A). Upon addition of (me)A, the bases pair with the T residues, forming a continuous stack within the gap region. Formation of the gapped duplex is accompanied by a nearly 2-fold increase in decay time, to values that are indistinguishable from the full duplex control for monovalent salt concentrations up to 90 mM. These results indicate that at least 90\% of the rigidity of the dT(n)-dA(n) homopolymer derives from base pair stacking effects, with phosphate-phosphate interactions contributing relatively little to net helix rigidity at moderate salt concentrations.}, address = {Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Colorado School of Medicine, 4200 East Ninth Avenue, Denver, CO 80262, USA.}, author = {Mills, J. B. and Hagerman, P. J.}, citeulike-article-id = {944745}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkh740}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/32/13/4055}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15289578}, citeulike-linkout-3 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=15289578}, doi = {10.1093/nar/gkh740}, issn = {1362-4962}, journal = {Nucleic Acids Res}, keywords = {dna-exp}, number = {13}, pages = {4055--4059}, posted-at = {2008-10-17 08:31:32}, priority = {3}, title = {Origin of the intrinsic rigidity of DNA.}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkh740}, volume = {32}, year = {2004} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:944745 L3 - citeulike-article-id:944745 N2 - The intrinsic rigidities of DNA and RNA helices are generally thought to arise from some combination of vertical base-stacking interactions and intra-helix phosphate-phosphate charge repulsion; however, the relative contributions of these two types of interaction to helix rigidity have not been quantified. To address this issue, we have measured the rotational decay times of a 'gapped-duplex' DNA molecule possessing a central, single-stranded region, dT24, before and after addition of the free purine base, N6-methyladenine ((me)A). Upon addition of (me)A, the bases pair with the T residues, forming a continuous stack within the gap region. Formation of the gapped duplex is accompanied by a nearly 2-fold increase in decay time, to values that are indistinguishable from the full duplex control for monovalent salt concentrations up to 90 mM. These results indicate that at least 90% of the rigidity of the dT(n)-dA(n) homopolymer derives from base pair stacking effects, with phosphate-phosphate interactions contributing relatively little to net helix rigidity at moderate salt concentrations. IS - 13 JF - Nucleic Acids Res SN - 1362-4962 AD - Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Colorado School of Medicine, 4200 East Ninth Avenue, Denver, CO 80262, USA. EP - 4059 TI - Origin of the intrinsic rigidity of DNA. VL - 32 SP - 4055 KW - dna-exp AU - Mills, JB AU - Hagerman, PJ PY - 2004/// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkh740 ER -