Title
Assessing the influence of pH and cationic strength on i-motif DNA structure
Author
Nunzia Iaccarino, Anna Di Porzio, Jussara Amato, Bruno Pagano, Diego Brancaccio, Ettore Novellino, Riccardo Leardi, Antonio Randazzo
Year
2019
Journal
Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry
Abstract
The i-motif is a biologically relevant non-canonical DNA structure formed by cytosine-rich sequences. Despite the importance of the factors affecting the formation/stability of such a structure, like pH, cation type and concentration, no systematic study that simultaneously analysed their effect on the i-motif in vitro has been carried out so far. Therefore, here we report a systematic study that aims to evaluate the effect of these factors, and their possible interaction, on the formation of an i-motif structure. Our results confirm that pH plays the main role in i-motif formation. However, we demonstrate that the effect of the cation concentration on the i-motif is strictly dependent on the pH, while no significant differences are observed among the investigated cation types.
Instrument
J-815
Keywords
Circular dichroism, DNA structure, Chemical stability, Biochemistry