Protein–DNA Interactions: Polyelectrolyte Effects

Ruth M Saecker, UW‐Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

Published online: September 2007

DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0001350.pub2

The stability of noncovalent protein–DNA complexes is typically sensitive to the ionic composition of the solution, in a manner that is dependent on the specific ion concentrations and is not a simple ionic strength effect. One important origin of this sensitivity to solution conditions is the polyelectrolyte effect.

Keywords: Protein–nucleic acid interactions; thermodynamics; polyelectrolytes; binding

 References
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 Further Reading
    Ballin JD, Shkel IA and Record MT Jr (2004) Interactions of the KWK6 cationic peptide with short nucleic acid oligomers: demonstration of large Coulombic end effects on binding at 0.1-0.2 M salt. Nucleic Acids Research 32: 3271–3281.
    Cayley S and Record MT Jr (2004) Large changes in cytoplasmic biopolymer concentration with osmolality indicate that macromolecular crowding may regulate protein–DNA interactions and growth rate in osmotically stressed E. coli K-12. Journal of Molecular Recognition 17: 488–496.
    book Csonka LN and Epstein W (1996) "Osmoregulation". In: Neidhardt FC, Curtiss R III, Ingraham JL et al. (eds) Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium: Cellular and Molecular Biology, 2nd edn, vol. 1, pp. 1210–1223. Washington, DC: ASM Press.
    Lohman TM and Mascotti DP (1992) Thermodynamics of ligand–nucleic acid interactions. Methods in Enzymology 212: 400–424.
    von Hippel P (2007) From “simple” DNA-protein interactions to the macromolecular machines of gene expression. Annual Review of Biophysics and Biomolecular Structure 36: 79–105.

Related Sub-Topics:

Protein Structure | Nucleic Acid Structure | DNA Structure and Function | Biomolecular Interactions | Nucleic Acids: Structure, Function, Metabolism
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Article Title: Protein–DNA Interactions: Polyelectrolyte Effects
 
How to Cite close
Saecker, Ruth M(Sep 2007) Protein–DNA Interactions: Polyelectrolyte Effects. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0001350.pub2]