Mg2+ ion stimulates the DNA strand exchange reaction catalyzed by RecA, a key step in homologous recombination. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying the role of Mg2+ and the strand exchange reaction itself, we investigated the interaction of RecA with Mg2+ and sought to determine which step of the reaction is affected. Thermal stability, intrinsic fluorescence, and native mass spectrometric analyses of RecA revealed that RecA binds at least two Mg2+ ions with KD ≈ 2 mM and 5 mM. Deletion of the C-terminal acidic tail of RecA made its thermal stability and fluorescence characteristics insensitive to Mg2+ and similar to those of full-length RecA in the presence of saturating Mg2+. These observations, together with the results of a molecular dynamics simulation, support the idea that the acidic tail hampers the strand exchange reaction by interacting with other parts of RecA, and that binding of Mg2+ to the tail prevents these interactions and releases RecA from inhibition. We observed that binding of the first Mg2+ stimulated joint molecule formation, whereas binding of the second stimulated progression of the reaction. Thus, RecA is actively involved in the strand exchange step as well as bringing the two DNAs close to each other.

Guanine-rich quadruplex (G-QD) are formed by conversion of nucleotides with specific sequences by stabilization of positively charged K+ or Na+. These G-QD structures differentially absorb two-directional (right- and left-handed) circularly polarized light, which can discriminate the parallel or anti-parallel structures of G-QDs. In this study, G-QDs stabilized by Pb2+ were analyzed by a circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy to determine Pb2+ concentration in water samples. Thrombin aptamer (TBA), PS2.M, human telomeric DNA (HTG), AGRO 100, and telomeric related sequence (T2) were studied to verify their applicability as probes for platform- and label-free detection of Pb2+ in environmental as well as laboratory samples. Among these nucleotides, TBA and PS2.M exhibited higher binding constants for Pb2+, 1.20–2.04 × 106/M at and 4.58 × 104–1.09 × 105/M at 100 micromolar and 100 mM K+ concentration, respectively. They also exhibited excellent selectivity for Pb2+ than for Al3+, Cu2+, Ni2+, Fe3+, Co2+, and Cr2+. When Pb2+ was spiked into an effluent sample from a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), its existence was detected by CD spectroscopy following a simple addition of TBA or PS2.M. By the addition of TBA and PS2.M, the Pb2+ signals were observed in effluent samples over 0.5 micromolar (100 ppb) concentration. Furthermore, PS2.M caused a Pb2+-specific absorption band in the effluent sample without spiking of Pb2+, and could be induced to G-QD structure by the background Pb2+ concentration in the effluent, 0.159 micromolar concentration (3.30 ppb). Taken together, we propose that TBA and PS2.M are applicable as platform- and label-free detection probes for monitoring Pb2+ in environmental samples such as discharged effluent from local WWTPs, using CD spectroscopy.

No abstract

No abstract

The binding mode of free base and Mn(III)meso‐tetrakis(N‐methylpyridium‐4‐yl)porphyrin (TMPyP and MnTMPyP) to various duplex and triplex synthetic polynucleotides was investigated by polarized light spectroscopy, specifically circular and linear dichroism (CD and LD) spectroscopy. Both TMPyP and MnTMPyP produced a similar positive CD spectrum in the Soret absorption region when bound to poly(dA)·poly(dT) duplex and poly(dA)·[poly(dT)]2 triplex. Considering that the third poly(dT) strand blocks the major groove, this result suggested that both porphyrins bound near the minor groove where the axial ligands of the central Mn(III) ion did not affect the binding mode. In contrast, TMPyP intercalated and MnTMPyP bound the exterior of poly(dG)·poly(dC) and poly(dI)·poly(dC) duplexes, as judged from the negative and positive CD signals, respectively. The CD signals for both intercalated TMPyP and externally bound MnTMPyP were greatly altered when bound to poly(dG)·poly(dC)·poly(dC)+ and poly(dI)·poly(dC)·poly(dC)+ triplexes, indicating that the binding modes of both porphyrins were affected by the presence of the third strand, poly(dC)+, which contrasted with the AT polynucleotides. This observation supported the conclusion that the external binding site of MnTMPyP at the GC and IC duplexes is the major groove. The reduced LD spectrum indicated that the angles of the two electric transition moments of both TMPyP and MnTMPyP in the Soret absorption region were 57° and 65° with respect to the local DNA helix axis when bound to the poly(dA)·[poly(dT)]2 triplex. On the other hand, a strong, wavelength‐dependent reduced LD was observed in the Soret region for both porphyrins when associated with CGC triplex, and the excessive tilt degree prevented any reasonable calculation of the angles.