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Direct observation of the biphasic conformational change of DNA induced by cationic polymers
Author(s) -
Minagawa Keiji,
Matsuzawa Yukiko,
Yoshikawa Kenichi,
Matsumoto Mitsuhiro,
Doi Masao
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/0014-5793(91)81386-m
Subject(s) - dna , cationic polymerization , histone , polymer , biophysics , molecule , chemistry , conformational change , fluorescence microscope , brownian motion , crystallography , fluorescence , biochemistry , biology , polymer chemistry , physics , optics , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics
The interaction between T4 DNA and basic polypeptides was observed using fluorescence microscopy. Free DNA molecules exhibited random Brownian motion accompanying the conformational change. With the addition of polycation, such as histone and polyarginine. DNA molecules tended to shrink to become spherical shapes. The persistent lengths and the distributions of long axis lengths of DNA‐polyarginine complexes were determined from the video images at various polyarginine concentrations. It is demonstrated that the conformation of DNA changes in a biphasic manner in the presence of polyarginine.