PubMed · 15055587
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Mark Ptashne. 2004-01-23. Two "what if" experiments.. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0092-8674(03)01076-6
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We measured the fluorescence intensity of DNA-bound fluorescent dyes YO-PRO-1 (oxazole yellow) and YOYO-1 (dimer of oxazole yellow) at various spermidine concentrations to determine how counterions on DNA are exchanged in the process of DNA condensation. A decrease of fluorescence intensity was observed with an increase of spermidine. Considering the chemical equilibrium under the competition between the dye and spermidine for counterion condensation on DNA, the theoretical curve well describes the decrease of the fluorescence intensity. These results indicate that dyes are exchanged for spermidine at the binding site on DNA; that is, the exchange of counterions occurs. The parameters associated with the decrease of the fluorescence intensity show that the relative affinity of the dye and spermidine for DNA depends on the state of DNA. Moreover, YOYO-1 prevents the DNA condensation, but the effect of YO-PRO-1 on the condensation is very slight, though both dyes intercalate for DNA; the high affinity of YOYO-1 compared to YO-PRO-1 enables prevention of the condensation.
The velocities and conformations of single DNA chains were probed as they electromigrated at varying electric field strength through a crystalline array of silica colloids. An optically transparent film consisting of 300-nm silica colloids was formed on glass as a transparent crystalline layer of 7 mum thickness with an effective pore size of 45 nm. The behaviors of individual lambda-DNA molecules (48,502 base pairs) electromigrating through this material were observed to be analogous to the behaviors of long DNA chains in electrophoresis gels, including chain extension, hooking of chains around the matrix, and hernia formation. The electrophoretic mobility of lambda-DNA in this dense, narrow-pore material is surprisingly high: 1.8 cm2/Vs at 10 V/cm, which is at least as high as for much wider-pore gels. Imaging of the single molecules revealed that higher field strength caused increased chain extension and increased mobility, which reached an apparent plateau just above 2.0 cm2/Vs at 200 V/cm. Pulsed, crossed electric fields of 200 V/cm at 120 degrees to one another were applied to the material. The DNA chains were observed by imaging to electromigrate in an orderly fashion, and the migration rate was found to be length-dependent. The results indicate that these thin, robust, self-assembling inorganic materials are interesting as possible alternatives to polymeric gels for higher speed electrophoresis.
We have proposed a new technique for stretching single double-stranded DNA molecules on solid substrates by the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) method. The polyion complex monolayer of a cationic amphiphile and DNA molecules formed at the air-water interface was transferred on a clean glass substrate. Vertical lifting up of the glass substrate provided the transferred monolayer consisting the stretched individual DNA molecules aligned parallel to the lifting direction on the glass. The DNA molecules complexed with the restriction endonuclease (EcoRI) were employed for stretching by using this method. Fluorescence images of the transferred monolayer showed that the EcoRI-binding DNA molecules could be stretched and immobilized on the glass substrate. A specific sequence of DNA recognized by EcoRI was detected as spatial positions of the stretched DNA molecules.