ISSN:
0006-3525
Keywords:
Chemistry
;
Polymer and Materials Science
Source:
Wiley InterScience Backfile Collection 1832-2000
Topics:
Chemistry and Pharmacology
Notes:
We show that the persistence length a of DNA, derived from total intensity laser light scattering of linear Col E1 DNA and corrected for excluded-volume effects, varies from about 68 nm in 0.005M NaCl to about 40 nm in 0.2M NaCl, leveling off to a constant value (about 27 nm) at high NaCl (1-4M) concentration. These observations do not agree with current views on the effect of electrostatic charge and ionic conditions on DNA dimensions. The apparent diffusion constant Dapp, determined from laser light scattering autocorrelation as a function of scattering vector q, at NaCl concentrations 0.005-4M, correctly yields the translational diffusion coefficient Dt at low values of q and scales with molecular dimensions rather than segment length at high values of q; thus, Dapp/Dt yields a universal curve when plotted against q2Rg2, where Rg is the radius of the gyration. The sedimentation coefficients s at 0.1 and 0.2M NaCl concentration closely agree with the well-tested empirical relations, and a combination of s, Dt, and the appropriate density increments yield correct molar masses over the whole salt concentration range. Approximate constancy of DtRg indicates limited draining in translational flow. We present some observations and thoughts on the regimes in which a dependence of the correlation decay times on q3 rather than q2 applies. We conclude that quasielastic laser light scattering discloses little information about dynamics of internal motion of DNA chains.
Additional Material:
7 Ill.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bip.1981.360201213
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