Equilibrium dialysis studies of polyamine binding to DNA

Braunlin, William H.; Strick, T. J.; Record, M. Thomas

doi:10.1002/bip.360210704

Cited by 205 publications

(202 citation statements)

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“…In theoretical studies, polyamines have been treated as point concentrations of positive charge that interact with a DNA molecule considered to be a linear concentration of negative charge (9); in this counterion condensation model, chemical structure is ignored and specificity in interaction is not considered. Experimental results consistent with this model have been published (9)(10)(11). In other models, structures ofboth DNA and polyamines are taken into account.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 56%

Spermine-DNA interactions: a theoretical study.

Feuerstein¹,

Pattabiraman²,

Marton³

1986

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

159

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Models for the interaction of spermine and DNA were studied by performing conformational energy calculations on spermine and molecular mechanics calculations on major and minor groove complexes of spermine and oligomers of DNA. Docked into the major groove of B-DNA, spermine stabilizes the complex by aimig interactions between proton acceptors on the oligomer and proton donors on spermine. This is achieved by bending the major groove of DNA over spermine and altering oligomer sugar puckering and interstrand phosphate distances. By comparison, Liquori's minor groove model appears to be less stable than the major groove model. This evidence favors a preferential binding of spermine to certain sites in DNA, which provides a powerful force for the modification of DNA conformation.Polyamines are aliphatic polycationic compounds that are found in all cells and have a significant role in the regulation of normal and malignant cell proliferation (1). Polyamine biosynthesis is highly regulated, and intracellular levels of polyamines can change rapidly by orders of magnitude when cell growth is stimulated (1). It has been proposed that polyamines affect growth by interacting with DNA. Evidence for these interactions obtained from experiments conducted in cell-free systems includes the ability of polyamines to precipitate DNA (2) and to raise the melting temperature of natural DNAs (3). Other results obtained by electron microscopy and micrococcal nuclease digestion of DNA show that polyamines can produce an organized condensed DNA structure (4). On the cellular level, depletion of intracellular polyamines by treatment with inhibitors of polyamine biosynthesis produces effects consistent with models in which polyamine interactions alter DNA conformation (5).It has been shown recently that polyamines can cause a B to Z conformational transition in both poly[d(G-m5C)] and poly[d(G-C)] (6, 7). In these studies, significant and specific changes in DNA structure can take place at low polyamine/ base-pair ratios. Differences in the ability of two spermidine analogs with the same charge but different structures to cause the B to Z transition suggest that a specific interaction causes the transition (8).Even though the interactions between DNA and polyamines have been described in detail, the molecular basis for an interaction has not been well-characterized. A major controversy in the field involves the question of whether or not the interaction is specific. In theoretical studies, polyamines have been treated as point concentrations of positive charge that interact with a DNA molecule considered to be a linear concentration of negative charge (9); in this counterion condensation model, chemical structure is ignored and specificity in interaction is not considered. Experimental results consistent with this model have been published (9)(10)(11). In other models, structures ofboth DNA and polyamines are taken into account. In one of these models, the tetracationic polyamine spermine bridges the minor groove ofDNA to give a ...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 56%

Spermine-DNA interactions: a theoretical study.

Feuerstein¹,

Pattabiraman²,

Marton³

1986

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

159

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“…Polyamines interact predominantly by electrostatic interactions with DNA molecules [43] inducing their compaction [44], aggregation [45] and precipitation [46,47]. Although these systems have been much studied for decades, there are a number of interesting points which only recently have been explained.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

DNA and surfactants in bulk and at interfaces

Dias

Pais

Miguel

et al. 2004

Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspect

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Recent investigations of the DNA interactions with cationic surfactants and catanionic mixtures are reviewed. Several techniques have been used such as fluorescence microscopy, dynamic light scattering, electron microscopy, and Monte Carlo simulations.The conformational behaviour of large DNA molecules in the presence of cationic surfactant was followed by fluorescence microscopy and also by dynamic light scattering. These techniques were in good agreement and it was possible to observe a discrete transition from extended coils to collapsed globules and their coexistence for intermediate amphiphile concentrations. The dependence on the surfactant alkyl chain was also monitored by fluorescence microscopy and, as expected, lower concentrations of the more hydrophobic surfactant were required to induce DNA compaction, although an excess of positive charges was still required.Monte Carlo simulations on the compaction of a medium size polyanion with shorter polycations were performed. The polyanion chain suffers a sudden collapse as a function of the concentration of condensing agent, and of the number of charges on the polycation molecules. Further increase in the concentration increases the degree of compaction. The compaction was found to be associated with the polycations promoting bridging between different sites of the polyanion. When the total charge of the polycations was lower than that of the polyanion, a significant translational motion of the compacting agent along the polyanion was observed, producing only a small-degree of intrachain segregation, which can explain the excess of positive charges necessary to compact DNA.Dissociation of the DNA-cationic surfactant complexes and a concomitant release of DNA was achieved by addition of anionic surfactants. The unfolding of DNA molecules, previously compacted with cationic surfactant, was shown to be strongly dependent on the anionic surfactant chain length; lower amounts of a longer chain surfactant were needed to release DNA into solution. On the other hand, no dependence on the hydrophobicity of the compacting agent was observed. The structures of the aggregates formed by the two surfactants, after the interaction with DNA, were imaged by cryogenic transmission electron microscopy. It is possible to predict the structure of the aggregates formed by the surfactants, like vesicles, from the phase behaviour of the mixed surfactant systems.Studies on the interactions between DNA and catanionic mixtures were also performed. It was observed that DNA does not interact with negatively charged vesicles, even though they carry positive amphiphiles; however, in the presence of positively charged vesicles, DNA molecules compact and adsorb on their surface.Finally Monte Carlo simulations were performed on the adsorption of a polyelectrolyte on catanionic surfaces. It was observed that the mobile charges in the surface react to the presence of the polyelectrolyte enabling a strong degree of adsorption even though the membrane was globally neutral. Our observati...

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“…Enthalpies observed upon NA binding by oligolysines and polyamines are small and salt-independent, consistent for an entirely entropic driving force (Braunlin et al, 1982;Lohman et al, 1980;Lohman & Mascotti, 1992). The K obs for binding is dependent on the mean ionic activity a ± of monovalent salt MX in solution,…”

Section: Binding Of Small Ligands To Polymeric Nucleic Acidsmentioning

confidence: 64%

“…dsDNA is thus predicted to have ds ψ = 0.88 (Record et al, 1976). Similar values of SK obs /Z L are found regardless of whether the ligand is Co(NH 3 ) 6 3+ (Plum & Bloomfield, 1988), polyamines (Braunlin et al, 1982), oligolysines (Lohman et al, 1980;Record et al, 1976), or even proteins such as lac repressor (deHaseth et al, 1977) or RNA polymerase (deHaseth et al, 1978) for their nonspecific binding to nonoperator DNA. SK obs /Z L has shown variation in some cases, especially when complex formation involves a DNA conformational change.…”

Section: )mentioning

confidence: 78%