Polyelectrolyte complexes of calf-thymus DNA and polycations, such as PDADMAC, IONENE, and P4VP were formed and analysed with respect to their thermodynamical stability. The UV-VIS spectrographic melting curves yield two denaturation temperatures, Tm;1 and Tm;2 . This is explained as follows: DNA molecules contain two kinds of repeat unit sequences. There are sequences that are not complexed, they denature at Tm;1 ; the other DNA repeat units are complexed with polycation repeat units, they denature at Tm;2 . Thereby, Tm;2 is much larger than Tm;1 . That is, polycation binding stabilises calf-thymus DNA. Surprisingly, the absolute value of Tm;1 depends neither on the degree of complexation nor on the polycation type. Tm;1 agrees quite well with the denaturation temperature of the pure, uncomplexed DNA. Also Tm;2 does depend not on the degree of polycation complexation, but on the polycation type. One observes Tm;2 PDADMAC . Tm;2 P4VP . Tm;2 IONENE: The probable reason for this series is the polycation molar mass. Tm;2 increases slightly as Mw is increased. While Tm;1 depends on the concentration of the added NaCl-salt, Tm;2 does not. This is explained using the fact that the complexed DNA repeat units are electrically neutral, so that there are no salt/charge interactions. Measurements in aqueous/organic solvent mixtures show that both Tm;1 as well Tm;2 decrease continually as the content of the organic solvent is increased. Very marked is this effect for water/N-methylformamide. At wNMF < 40%, Tm;1 and Tm;2 are nearly half as large as in pure water.
Посилання на статтю:
Denaturation experiments on calf-thymus DNA/polycation complexes in aqueous/organic solvent mixtures / T. Schindler, E. Nordmeier // Polymer. – 1999. – N 40. – P. 7019–7027.
