Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Nucleic Acids Research logoLink to Nucleic Acids Research
. 1976 Oct;3(10):2401–2409. doi: 10.1093/nar/3.10.2401

Interaction of ethidium bromide with DNA: effect of LiCl and ethylene glycol.

J S Balcerski, E S Pysh
PMCID: PMC343099  PMID: 995636

Abstract

The interaction of the intercalating dye ethidium bromide with several native and synthetic polydeoxyribonucleic acids has been studied by means of circular dichroic spectra. The CD of DNA-ethidium bromide complexes in the 290-360 nm region is characterized, especially at high salt and at high ethylene glycol content, by positive and negative bands near 308 nm and 295 nm, respectively. These dye associated CD bands are unaffected by the addition of LiCl or ethylene glycol, suggesting that the relative conformation of dye and neighboring base pairs does not change when the conformation of the rest of the DNA changes.

Full text

PDF
2401

Selected References

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

  1. Aktipis S., Kindelis A. Optical properties of the deoxyribonucleic acid-ethidium bromide complex. Effect of salt. Biochemistry. 1973 Mar 13;12(6):1213–1221. doi: 10.1021/bi00730a031. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Angerer L. M., Moudrianakis E. N. Interaction of ethidium bromide with whole and selectively deproteinized deoxynucleoproteins from calf thymus. J Mol Biol. 1972 Feb 14;63(3):505–521. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(72)90444-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bauer W., Vinograd J. Interaction of closed circular DNA with intercalative dyes. II. The free energy of superhelix formation in SV40 DNA. J Mol Biol. 1970 Feb 14;47(3):419–435. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(70)90312-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Chung S. Y., Holzwarth G. Circular dichroism of flow-oriented nucleic acids. I. Experimental results. J Mol Biol. 1975 Mar 5;92(3):449–466. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(75)90291-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Dalgleish D. G., Peacocke A. R. The circular dichroism in the ultraviolet of aminoacridines and ethidium bromide bound to DNA. Biopolymers. 1971 Oct;10(10):1853–1863. doi: 10.1002/bip.360101008. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Green G., Hahler H. R. Conformation changes of deoxyribonucleic acid and polydeoxynucleotides in water and ethylene glycol. Biochemistry. 1971 Jun 8;10(12):2200–2216. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Hanlon S., Brudno S., Wu T. T., Wolf B. Structural transitions of deoxyribonucleic acid in aqueous electrolyte solutions. I. Reference spectra of conformational limits. Biochemistry. 1975 Apr 22;14(8):1648–1660. doi: 10.1021/bi00679a017. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Ivanov V. I., Minchenkova L. E., Schyolkina A. K., Poletayev A. I. Different conformations of double-stranded nucleic acid in solution as revealed by circular dichroism. Biopolymers. 1973;12(1):89–110. doi: 10.1002/bip.1973.360120109. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Maestre M. F. Circular dichroism of DNA films: reversibility studies. J Mol Biol. 1970 Sep 28;52(3):543–556. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(70)90418-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Nelson R. G., Johnson W. C., Jr Conformation of DNA in ethylene glycol. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1970 Oct 9;41(1):211–216. doi: 10.1016/0006-291x(70)90490-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Paoletti J., Le Pecq J. B. Resonance energy transfer between ethidium bromide molecules bound to nucleic acids. Does intercalation wind or unwind the DNA helix? J Mol Biol. 1971 Jul 14;59(1):43–62. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(71)90412-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Studdert D. S., Patroni M., Davis R. C. Circular dichroism of DNA: temperature and salt dependence. Biopolymers. 1972;11(4):761–779. doi: 10.1002/bip.1972.360110404. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Tsai C. C., Jain S. C., Sobell H. M. X-ray crystallographic visualization of drug-nucleic acid intercalative binding: structure of an ethidium-dinucleoside monophosphate crystalline complex, Ethidium: 5-iodouridylyl (3'-5') adenosine. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1975 Feb;72(2):628–632. doi: 10.1073/pnas.72.2.628. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Waring M. J. The effects of antimicrobial agents on ribonucleic acid polymerase. Mol Pharmacol. 1965 Jul;1(1):1–13. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Waring M. Variation of the supercoils in closed circular DNA by binding of antibiotics and drugs: evidence for molecular models involving intercalation. J Mol Biol. 1970 Dec 14;54(2):247–279. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(70)90429-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Williams R. E., Seligy V. L. The interaction of ethidium bromide with synthetic polydeoxyribonucleic acids. Effect of base composition and sequence on the induced circular dichroism spectra. Can J Biochem. 1974 Apr;52(4):281–287. doi: 10.1139/o74-044. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Zimmer C., Luck G. Conformation and reactivity of DNA. VI. Circular dichroism studies of salt-induced conformational changes of DNAs of different base composition. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1974 Aug 15;361(1):11–32. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Nucleic Acids Research are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES