Reversion of the B to A transition of DNA induced by specific interaction with the oligopeptide distamycin A

✍ Scribed by L. Minchenkova; Ch. Zimmer

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1980
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 443 KB
• Volume: 19
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0006-3525
• DOI: 10.1002/bip.1980.360190408

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The effect of the DNA‐binding oligopeptide distamycin A on the B to A transition of DNA in ethanol/water solutions has been studied by means of CD. (The overbars indicate that it does not matter which particular form of the corresponding families is considered.) The results show that increasing the concentration of distamycin A reverses the A conformation (in 82% ethanol) to the B conformation due to its strong binding and stabilization of the latter. In accordance with previous data for pure aqueous solutions, a site size of 3.5 base pairs is obtained from the studies in water/ethanolic solutions. From the data on the B to A transition in the presence of distamycin A, we estimated the length of the cooperativity ν~0~ = 10 base pairs.

The results demonstrate that the oligopeptide systems of distamycin, as well as those of netropsin, are effective stabilizers of the DNA B‐conformation.