Role and Applications of Electrostatic Effects on Nucleic Acid Conformational Transitions and Binding Processes

Processes involving nucleic acids are in general highly salt concentration dependent. Equilibrium binding constants (Kobs, defined in terms of the concentrations of the reactants and products) describing the association of proteins or multivalent ligands with nucleic acids (NAs) exhibit large negative power dependences on salt concentration. For the reaction of a ligand L with charge ZL forming a complex with a DNA strand having ZD phosphates,