Nicking and total cleavage of plasmid DNA by each metallopeptide, in the presence of co-reactants. The gel above corresponds to the data in the bar plot below (average of duplicate trials). After 4 h incubation, cleavage resulted in nicking of plasmid DNA, followed by linearization, and finally to a distribution of smaller fragments (not shown above). Initial concentrations were 10 μM base pairs DNA (defined as 100%), 0.1 μM complex, and 1 mM each co-reactant. ‘Full length sum’ is the sum of the percentages of supercoiled (S), nicked (N), and linear (L) forms of DNA.