Biopolym. Cell. 2007; 23(5):433-440.
Molecular Biophysics
Effect of Cd2+ ions on conformational equilibrium of three-stranded polyU·polyA·polyU polynucleotide under near-physiological conditions
1Sorokin V. A., 1Valeev V. A., 1Usenko E. L., 1Blagoi Yu. P.
  1. B. I. Verkin Institute for Low Temperature Physics and Engineering, NAS of Ukraine
    47, Prospekt Lenina, Kharkiv, Ukraine, 61103
Cd2+ ions effect on the conformational equilibrium of three-stranded polyU·polyA·polyU polynucleotide (0.1M Na+, pH 7) has been studied by the method of differential UV spectroscopy. It has been revealed that Cd2+ ions do not bind heteroatoms of nitrogen bases of polyA and polyU being in triple (A2U) and double (AU) helices and do not change their conformation. The heating of A2U results in two subsequent processes: the first one represents separation of one strand of poly U from A2U i. e. A2U AU + U transition (3 → 2 transition) is realized, and the second one corresponds to more cooperative melting of AU, i. e. 2 → 1 (U + A U + A + U) transition. The concentration dependences of melting temperatures for these processes have some intersection point (Tm = 60 °C; [Cd2+] ~ 3.5·10–4 M) at which thermal stability of A2U and AU become identical. The theoretical calculations of concentration dependences (Tm)3→2 revealed that the best agreement between experiment and theory is observed at the enthalpy of transitionΔH3→2 = 5 kcal/mol·triplet.
Keywords: metal ions, three-stranded polynucleotides, conformational transitions