AbstractsChemistry
Pressure Dependence and Volumetric Properties of Short DNA Hairpins
| Institution: | University of Toronto |
|---|---|
| Department: | |
| Year: | 2010 |
| Keywords: | DNA hairpins; Transition Volume; Short; cruciform; antisense; pressure; hydrostatic; phase diagram; temperature; volume; enthalpy; salt; sodium; hydration; water; loop; stem; hydrophobic; stability; high pressure; melting temperature; ion release; G-quadruplexes; telomeric sequence; G-quartets; DNA tetraplexes |
| Record ID: | 1887807 |
| Full text PDF: | http://hdl.handle.net/1807/25408 |
Abstract
Previous studies of short DNA hairpins have revealed that loop and stem sequences can significantly affect the thermodynamic stability of short DNA hairpins. Nevertheless, there has not been sufficient investigation into the pressure-temperature stability of DNA hairpins, and the current thermodynamic knowledge of DNA hairpins’ stability is limited to the temperature domain. In this work, we report the effect of hydrostatic pressure on the helix-coil transition temperature (TM) for eleven short DNA hairpins at different salt concentrations by performing UV-monitored melting. The studied hairpins form by intramolecular folding of 16-base self-complementary DNA oligo¬deoxy¬ribonucleotides. Model dependent (van’t Hoff) transition parameters such as ΔHvH and transition volume (ΔV) were estimated from analysis of optical melting transitions. Experiments revealed the ΔV for denaturation of these molecules range from -2.35 to +6.74 cm3mol-1. The difference in the volume change for this transition is related to differences in the hydration of these molecules.
