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. 1990 Jul 11;18(13):3847–3851. doi: 10.1093/nar/18.13.3847

DNA conformational analysis in solution by uranyl mediated photocleavage.

P E Nielsen 1, N E Møllegaard 1, C Jeppesen 1
PMCID: PMC331085  PMID: 2374711

Abstract

Uranyl mediated photocleavage of double stranded DNA is proposed as a general probing for DNA helix conformation in terms of minor groove width/electronegative potential. Specifically, it is found that A/T-tracts known to constitute strong distamycin binding sites are preferentially photocleaved by uranyl in a way indicating strongest uranyl binding at the center of the minor groove of the AT-region. The A-tracts of kinetoplast DNA show the highest reactivity at the 3'-end of the tract--as opposed to cleavage by EDTA/Fell--in accordance with the minor groove being more narrow at this end. Finally, uranyl photocleavage of the internal control region (ICR) of the 5S-RNA gene yields a cleavage modulation pattern fully compatible with that obtained by DNase I which also--in a more complex way--senses DNA minor groove width.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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