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Electrostatic contributions to oligonucleotide transitions
Author(s) -
Delisi Charles,
Crothers Donald M.
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
biopolymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.556
H-Index - 125
eISSN - 1097-0282
pISSN - 0006-3525
DOI - 10.1002/bip.360101123
Subject(s) - chemistry , dimer , nucleation , oligonucleotide , chain (unit) , random coil , monte carlo method , salt (chemistry) , function (biology) , chemical physics , crystallography , thermodynamics , physics , dna , circular dichroism , biochemistry , statistics , mathematics , organic chemistry , astronomy , evolutionary biology , biology
In a previous paper we employed Monte Carlo techniques to calculate distribution functions for distances between charged phosphates of randomly coiled oligonucleotides in solution. The average energy of the random coil, as well as the loop weighting function and bimolecular nucleation parameter, was obtained as a function of chain length and salt concentration. In the present paper we apply the results to a consideration of the electrostatic dependence of the helix–coil transition in oligonucleotides. By considering the equilibrium among three species: hairpin, dimer, and random coil, we have calculated (1) the variation in melting temperature of dimer, hairpin, and the dimer‐hairpin mixture with salt concentration and chain length, (2) the variation in the equilibrium between dimer and hairpin as a function of salt concentration, temperature, and length, (3) the variation in the transition breadth with salt concentration and chain length.