FORMATION STUDY OF TOROIDAL CONDENSATION OF DNA

A detailed study of the formation of toroidal condensation produced from the 2700 base pair fragments of plasmid PUCI3 DNA, induced by metal ions, is introduced. We have extracted several typical intermediate structures based on investigation by electron microscopy, and compared their size distributions. The observations suggest that the formation process of DNA condensation is the process of folding and arranging DNA chains and that of disorderorder transition. The result also indicates that the condensed particles are polymeric, but not randomly aggregative, further proving thetoroidal structures are formed in certain regularities.     

DNA缩合结构形成过程的研究

本文研究了2700 bp DNA片段在金属离子作用下,折叠缩合为复曲面的形成过程。以电子显微镜术为手段,经大量观测抽提出几种典型中间结构,并计算了各典型结构的尺度分布。作者由此推论,DNA缩合结构的形成过程是DNA链折叠与排列的过程;是无序到有序的转化过程。研究不仅证实缩合是有规则与有方向的,还进一步证实短DNA片段的缩合是多分子的缩合。     

不同价态金属离子对DNA构象的影响

用紫外分光光度法研究了不同价态金属离子对DNA大分子溶液构象的影响。研究结果显示: 金属离子与DNA的作用使DNA溶液的紫外吸收值下降, 即呈现减色效应, 同时减色效应的强弱与金属离子的价态有关。随着价态升高, 减色效应增强。由此说明, 金属离子与DNA的作用使DNA的构象趋于缩拢; 且随着金属离子价态升高, 缩拢程度增强, 甚至产生缩合。还用现代多聚电解质理论对以上现象进行了讨论, 结果是令人满意的。