Investigation of the electrostatic and hydration properties of DNA minor groove-binding by a heterocyclic diamidine by osmotic pressure.

ABSTRACT: Previous investigations of sequence-specific DNA binding by model minor groove-binding compounds showed that the ligand/DNA complex was destabilized in the presence of compatible co-solutes. Inhibition was interpreted in terms of osmotic stress theory as the uptake of significant numbers of excess water molecules from bulk solvent upon complex formation. Here, we interrogated the AT-specific DNA complex formed with the symmetric heterocyclic diamidine DB1976 as a model for minor groove DNA recognition using both ionic (NaCl) and non-ionic cosolutes (ethylene glycol, glycine betaine, maltose, nicotinamide, urea). While the non-ionic cosolutes all destabilized the ligand/DNA complex, their quantitative effects were heterogeneous in a cosolute- and salt-dependent manner. Perturbation with NaC

SUBMITTER: Erlitzki N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5607081 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature