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Structure and properties of DNA in apolar solvents.

ABSTRACT: The study of nucleic acids in low-polarity environments paves the way for novel biotechnological applications of DNA. Here, we use a repertoire of atomistic molecular simulation tools to study the nature of DNA when placed in a highly apolar environment and when transferred from aqueous to apolar solvent. Our results show that DNA becomes stiffer in apolar solvents and suggest that highly negatively charged states, which are the most prevalent in water, are strongly disfavored in apolar solvents and neutral states with conformations not far from the aqueous ones are the dominant forms. Transfer from water to an apolar solvent such as CCl4 is unlikely to occur, but our results suggest that if forced, the DNA would migrate surrounded by a small shell of water (the higher the DNA charge, the larger the number of water molecules in this shell). Even the neutral form (predicted to be the dominant one in apolar solvents) would surround itself by a small number of highly stable water molecules when moved from water to a highly apolar environment. Neutralization of DNA charges seems a crucial requirement for transfer of DNA to apolar media, and the most likely mechanism to achieve good transfer properties.

SUBMITTER: Arcella A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4124876 | biostudies-other | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Structure and properties of DNA in apolar solvents.

Arcella Annalisa A Portella Guillem G Collepardo-Guevara Rosana R Chakraborty Debayan D Wales David J DJ Orozco Modesto M

The journal of physical chemistry. B 20140714 29

The study of nucleic acids in low-polarity environments paves the way for novel biotechnological applications of DNA. Here, we use a repertoire of atomistic molecular simulation tools to study the nature of DNA when placed in a highly apolar environment and when transferred from aqueous to apolar solvent. Our results show that DNA becomes stiffer in apolar solvents and suggest that highly negatively charged states, which are the most prevalent in water, are strongly disfavored in apolar solvents ...[more]

PMID: 24968001

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Project description:Recently, DNA has been evaluated as a chiral scaffold for metal complexes to construct so called 'DNA-based hybrid catalysts', a robust and inexpensive alternative to enzymes. The unique chiral structure of DNA allows the hybrid catalysts to catalyze various asymmetric synthesis reactions. However, most current studies used aqueous buffers as solvents for these asymmetric reactions, where substrates/products are typically suspended in the solutions. The mass transfer limitation usually requires a long reaction time. To overcome this hurdle and to advance DNA-based asymmetric catalysis, we evaluated a series of ionic liquids (ILs), inorganic salts, deep eutectic solvents (DES), glymes, glycols, acetonitrile and methanol as co-solvents/additives for the DNA-based asymmetric Michael addition. In general, these additives induce indistinguishable changes to the DNA B-form duplex conformation as suggested by circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, but impose a significant influence on the catalytic efficiency of the DNA-based hybrid catalyst. Conventional organic solvents (e.g. acetonitrile and methanol) led to poor product yields and/or low enantioselectivities. Most ILs and inorganic salts cause the deactivation of the hybrid catalyst except 0.2 M [BMIM][CF3COO] (95.4% ee and 93% yield) and 0.2 M [BMIM]Cl (93.7% ee and 89% yield). Several other additives have also been found to improve the catalytic efficiency of the DNA-based hybrid catalyst (control reaction without additive gives >99% ee and 87% yield): 0.4 M glycerol (>99% ee and 96% yield at 5 °C or 96.2% ee and 83% yield at room temperature), 0.2 M choline chloride/glycerol (1:2) (92.4% ee and 90% yield at 5 °C or 94.0% ee and 88% yield at room temperature), and 0.5 M dipropylene glycol dimethyl ether (>99% ee and 87% yield at room temperature). The use of some co-solvents/additives allows the Michael addition to be performed at a higher temperature (e.g. room temperature vs 5 °C) and a shorter reaction time (24 h vs 3 days). In addition, we found that a brief pre-sonication (5 min) of DNA in MOPS buffer prior to the reaction could improve the performance of the DNA-based hybrid catalyst. We have also shown that this DNA-based catalysis method is suitable for a variety of different substrates and relatively large-scale reactions. In conclusion, a judicious selection of benign co-solvents/additives could improve the catalytic efficiency of DNA-based hybrid catalyst.

Dataset Information

Structure and properties of DNA in apolar solvents.

Publications

Structure and properties of DNA in apolar solvents.

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