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2324 J. Chem. Phys. 94 (3), 1 February 1991 0021-9606/91/032324-06$03.00 @ 1991 American Institute of Physics
Downloaded 27 May 2002 to 171.64.121.40. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright, see http://ojps.aip.org/jcpo/jcpcr.jsp
W. Eimer and R. Pecora: Fiodlike molecules in solution 2325
sions for DNA.” In particular the hydrodynamic diameter The procedure is to then make a theoretical plot off(p) vsp
of DNA may be found. based on Eqs. (3) and (4) ; obtain a value off(p) from mea-
The relations between the diameter and the rotational surement of D and 0; use the theoretical plot to obtain the
and translational diffusion coefficients are much more sensi- experimental p; and then use this p and the experimental
tive to small differences in diameter for short rods than for diffusion coefficients to obtain L (and d) from either (or
long ones. (The diffusion coefficients-lnp. ) In addition, both) Eqs. ( 1) and (2). We use this procedure in the follow-
longer rods might exhibit significant deviations from rigid ing..
rod behavior. Consequently, using rodlike molecules with Stokes-Einstein (D vs T/q, ) and Stokes-Einstein-De-
small p gives an excellent test of hydrodynamic relations, bye plots (r= l/60 vs q,/T) may be used to check these
and results in hydrodynamic diameters that may then be relations. Deviations from straight line plots in either case
used for the larger molecules in a homologous series. For for each of the oligomers is usually an indication of intermo-
instance, in the case of oligonucleotides the diameters ob- lecular’interactions or aggregation. In addition, the slopes of
tained for the short ones may be used to calculate “overall” any straight line plots obtained are related to the apparent
molecular relaxation times for the typically longer ones that hydrodynamic radius R, = L / [ 2 (In p + Y) ] and the hydro-
are used in various experiments to analyze local motions. dynamic volume Vh = V, (2/9 )p2/(ln p + S) by
These diameters may also be used as one of the parameters in
D=- k,
wormlike coil theories for much larger fragments. In earlier (The 1
works some data on short rodlike molecules has been pre- 6?i-R,
sented’3-‘5 including some on the rotational diffusion coeffi- and
cients of the 8-mer and the 12-mer.15 This oligonucleotide rs1/60 = (V,/k,)(~,/T), (7)
data was used in conjunction with the Tirado-Garcia de la where V, = m-d‘L /4 is the volume of the cylinder.
Torre theory to obtain a hydrodynamic diameter for DNA.
In the current work we provide measurements of the rota- EXPERIMENTAL
tional diffusion coefficients of the 20-mer and translational Oligonucleotides
diffusion coefficients of all three oligonucleotides. Measure-
The 8-mer and 12-mer were purchased from Operon
ment of both translational and rotational diffusion coeffi-
Technologies (San Pablo, California) and the 20-mer from
cients provides a more stringent test of the consistency of the
the Midland Certified Reagent Company (Midland, Texas).
hydrodynamic relations, and. allows extraction of d from the
All oligonucleotides are B-form duplexes with base sequence
theoretical hydrodynamic relations without having to make
d( CG) ,I, where n = 4,6 for the octamer and dodecamer and
assumptions about the length.
d[ CGTACTAGTTAACTAGTACG] for the 20-mer. All
THEORY oligomers were verified to be at least 98% pure by HPLC.
The experiments were performed in a phosphate buffer (50
The translational and rotational diffusion coefficients of mM phosphate, 100 mM NaCl, 2 mM EDTA, and 0.1%
rigid rods may, respectively, be written in the forms NaN, > atpH = 7.
D = (k,T/3q,L) (lnp + Y) (1)
Depolarized dynamic light scattering
and All rotational diffusion coefficients were measured us-
0 = (3k,T/ny,L 3, (lnp + S), (2) ing an apparatus similar to that described previously.“*ig
where k, is Boltzmann’s constant, T the absolute tempera- The light source was an argon ion laser (Spectra Physics
ture, and v0 the pure solvent viscosity. Model 2000 Series) operating single mode at il = 488.0 nm.
The differences between various theories for the diffu- The scattered light at 90” in the VH geometry was frequency
sion coefficients are in the end effect corrections Y and S. analyzed by passing it through a piezoelectrically driven
Expressions for these corrections have been given by Tirado, Fabry-Perot interferometer (RC- 110, Burleigh Instru-
Lopez Martinez, and Garcia de la Torre. is” A polynomial ments). The interferometer was equipped with a set of 750
approximation to their numerical results has been obtained MHz free spectral range confocal mirrors to allow the analy-
for the range 2 Sp S 30: sis of slow relaxation processes on the order of nanoseconds.
The typical finesse was about 80-90. The detection system
~=0.312+0.565p-‘--0.100~ ’ (3) consisted of an EM1 photomultiplier tube (Model 9865)) an
and SSR (Model 1105) amplifier discriminator, and Burleigh
S = - 0.662 + 0.917p - ’ - 0.050~1- 2. data acquisition and stabilization unit (DAS- 1) . A reference
(4)
beam of unscattered light was used to monitor the instru-
A technique for obtaining hydrodynamic dimensions of mental linewidth at the beginning of each interferometer
rodlike molecules using Eqs. ( 1) -( 4) has been given by Gar: scan. Data analysis was performed on a Charles River Data
cia de la Torre, Lopez Martinez, and Tirade.” They first Systems Microcomputer (Universe 68). All data were de-
compute a functionf(p) defined as convoluted by an iterative method”’ using the spectrum of
f(p) = (9n-q,/k,T)2/3D/(0”3) the reference beam as the instrumental function. In some
cases, due to the influence of dust, the spectrum of the scat-
lnp+v tered light contained a narrow line with the instrumental
(5)
= (Inp f ii) 1’3 . profile.
J. Chem. Phys., Vol. 94, No. 3, 1 February 1991
Downloaded 27 May 2002 to 171.64.121.40. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright, see http://ojps.aip.org/jcpo/jcpcr.jsp
2326 W. Eimer and R. Pecora: Rodlike molecules in solution
CONTIN and DISCRETE.~~-~" Results obtained from these oligonucleotide concentration [mglml]
programs were the same within the scatter of the data. Most
experiments were done at a scattering angle of 27 deg. Ex- FIG. 2 Translational diffusion coefficients for the oligonucleotides vs con-
periments on the 8-mer were done at a series of scattering centration corrected to 20 “C. The temperature range of the measurements
was 10-50 “C. Plot symbols are the same as in Fig. 1.
angles from 27 to 90 deg, and the resulting light scattering
relaxation frequencies followed the expected linear depen-
dence on the square of the scattering vector length.
ficients vs concentration at 20 “C for all three oligomers ob-
RESULTS tained by applying CONTIN and DISCRETE analysis to the
The rotational diffusion coefficients of the three oligon- polarized photon correlation spectroscopy time correlation
ucleotides at various concentrations corrected to 20 “C are functions. Except for the two highest concentrations of the
shown in Fig. 1. The figure shows that except for the 8-mer 8-mer, all diffusion coefficients fit well to a straight line
and 20-mer at the highest concentrations studied the rota- D=&(l +/cc). (8)
tional diffusion coefficients are independent of concentra- The zero concentration intercepts Do and the diffusion sec-
tion, and can therefore be presumed to be single molecule ond virial coefficients k are given in Table I. The zero con-
rotational diffusion coefficients.” The decrease in the rota- centration intercept is the translational self-diffusion coeffi-
tional diffusion coefficients at high concentrations is due to cient of the oligomer and is given with an error of at most
aggregation of the oligonucleotides. ” f 4%. Note that the diffusion coefficients increase with in-
Figure 2 shows a plot of the translational diffusion coef- creasing concentration (below 15 mg ml- ”), an indication
that aggregation is not important at these concentrations.
The second virial coefficients are relatively small and given
the considerable experimental error (about & 20% ) cannot
60 be said to differ significantly.
To further test the hydrodynamic theories, Stokes-Ein-
stein-Debye (SED) and Stokes-Einstein (SE) plots of the
rotational relaxation times (7~ l/60) and translational
self-diffusion coefficients were made and are shown, respec-
tively, in Figs. 3 and 4. The data in both cases fit well to
straight lines except for data at high concentration and low
temperature, which is most likely due to aggregation under
these conditions. The hydrodynamic volumes and hydrody-
namic radii extracted from the rotational and translational
plots according to Eqs. (7) and (6) are shown in Table II
along with a comparison of values calculated from assumed
I. I -. 1.. 1 .I dimensions. The radii and volumes from the slopes of the SE
0 5 10 15
and SED plots are slightly larger than those obtained from
oligonucleotide concentratipn [w/m1 1 the values of the extrapolated zero concentration values of
FIG. 1. Rotational diffusion coefficients vs concentration corrected to 20 “C the translational and rotational diffusion coefficients at
for the three oligonucleotides. Plot symbols: 0 = 20-mer, 0 = 12-mer, and 20 “C.
0 = 8-mer. The highest concentration points for the 8-mer and 20-mer are Figures 5 and 6 give, respectively, universal plots of the
indicative of aggregation. For the 20-mer all measurements were done at rotational relaxation times and the translational self-diffu-
20 “C except for the 11.5 ma ml-’ samule. For this concentration samule .,.
measurements were performed in.the range IO-40 “C!, which when correct- sion coefficients. Values of the abscissa were calculated using
ed to 20 “C gave the same result within the experimental error. L = n* 3.4 A and d = 20 A. The graphs show that the Tir-
DO k 0
(lo-l2 m’s ‘) (lo-” mlmg ‘) (lO%--‘) f(p) p L (.A)--L/n (A, d (A, --
S-mer 152.6 8.5 51.8 1.50 1.43 28.6 3.57 20.0
12-mer 134.1 8.0 26.1 1.63 2.10 42.1 3.50 20.1
20-mer 108.6 12.9 10.3 1.83 3.59 68.8 -. 3.44 19.2
40 ’ i ’ ’ i ’
250 -
7
*
2 200 -
2
0
-i
$4 150-
n
100 -
tr........,....,....,l
20 40 50 60
n,/T x lo6 [P K-t]
FIG. 3. Stokes-Einstein-Debye plot. Rotational relaxation times ;;qo, 1O-3 [K P-‘1
( = l/6@) vs solvent viscosity divided by the absolute temperature. E 8-
mer, 15 mg ml- ‘, high temperature;‘O B-mer, 15 mg ml - ‘; low tempera- FIG. 4. Stokes-Einstein plot. Translational diffusion coetlicients extrapo-
ture (aggregation); 0 lZmer, 12 mg ml- ‘*high temperature; 0 lZmer, 12~ lated to’zero concentration vs T/r], . Plot symbols are the same as in Fig. 1.
mg ml- ‘, low temperature (aggregation j; A 20-mer, 11.5 mg ml - ‘, high The following indicate the concentrations at which measurements were per-
temperature; A 20-mer, 11.5 mg ml- ‘, low temperature (aggregation); ‘I formed at different temperatures: 20-mer-11.5 mg ml- ‘, 12-mer-2.7
IO-mer, 2.9 mg ml- I; f 20-mer, 1.7 mg ml- ‘. mg ml- ‘, 8-mer-7mg ml-‘.
8-
mer 14.1 13.9 16 450 12 000
12-
mer 16.6 16.0 28 400 24 210
20-
mer 20.8 20.1 73 500 66 340
80
60
7k
‘f 40
,o
0" 20
Downloaded 27 May 2002 to 171.64.121.40. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright, see http://ojps.aip.org/jcpo/jcpcr.jsp
W. Eimer and R. Pecora: Rodlike molecules in solution 2329
three oligomers studied here give a hydrodynamic diameter MRL program through the Center for Materials Research at
of DNA of 20 + 1.5 A, which is just the distance given by Stanford University. W. Eimer is grateful to the Alexander
fiber diffraction data’6*‘8 for the outer diameter as deter- von Humboldt Foundation for the award of a Feodor-Lynen
mined by the extent of the phosphate groups. Our results Fellowship.
indicate that self-consistent hydrodynamic diameters ob-
tained by our procedures do not include the extra 4 to 6 A
due to water of hydration beyond the extent of the phosphate
groups that have been usually assumed by workers in this
field. Several possibilities might be invoked to explain this
discrepancy. First, it is possible that deviations of the oli-
gomers from a perfectly cylindrical form are responsible for
this effect. It would be interesting to extend the subunit mod- ’A. Einstein, Investigations on the Theory of the Brownian Movement (Do-
els of Tirado and Garcia de la Torre to include some model- ver, New York, 1956).
ing of the DNA groves and determine what their effect ‘P. Debye, Polar Molecules (Dover, New York, 1929).
‘F. Perrin, J. Phys. Rad. 5,497 (1934); 7, 1 (1936).
should be. Second, it may be that the second faster rotation ‘G. R. Alms, D. R. Bauer, J. I. Brauman, and R. Pecora, J. Chem. Phys.
about the axis of the helix is contributing to the depolarized 59,5310,5321 (1973).
dynamic light scattering spectrum. If this were the case, ’ D. Kivelson, in Rotational Dynamics of Small and Macromolecules, edit-
however, one would expect that the contribution of this rota- ed by T. Dorfmiiller and R. Pecora (Springer, Heidelberg, 1987).
6S. Broersma, J. Chem. Phys. 32,1626,1632 (1960); 74,6889 (1980).
tion would be different for the three fragments and that the ‘C. M. Hu and R. Zwanzig, J. Chem. Phys. 60,4354 (1974).
resulting effective diameters would also be different for each *G. K. Youngren and A. Acrivos, J. Chem. Phys. 63,3846 (1976).
of the fragments. Third, it is possible that the Tirado-Garcia “T. Yoshizaki and H. Yamakawa, J. Chem. Phys. 72,57 (1980).
de la Torre relations, although self-consistent in the homolo- ‘“M. M. Tirado and J. Garcia de la Torre, J. Chem. Phys. 71,258 1 ( 1979);
73, 1986 (1980).
gous series, are giving a diameter that is too small to repre- ” M M Tirado, M. C. Lopez Martinez, and J. Garcia de IaTorre, J. Chem.
sent the dimensions of the true rotating unit. Phys.81, 2047 (1984).
The results also demonstrate that the combination of “J. Garcia de la Torre, M. C. Lopez Martinez, and M. hl. Tirado Biopo-
depolarized dynamic light scattering using Fabry-Perot in- lymers 23, 611 (1984).
“J. K. Park, A. C. Ouano, and R. Pecora, Macromolecules 21, 1717,1722
terferometry and polarized dynamic light scattering using i 1989).
photon correlation spectroscopy constitute very sensitive I4 S. Michielsen and R. Pecora, Biochemistry 20, 6994 ( 198 1) .
techniques to monitor sizes and, by extension, size changes ” W. Eimer, J. R. Williamson, S. G. Boxer, and R. Pecora, Biochemistry 29,
799 (1990).
of relatively small rodlike molecules such as the oligonucleo- 16S. Arnot and D. W.L. Hukins, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 47, 1504
tides in solution. Possible applications include studies of the (1972).
transitions between the A, B, and Z forms of DNA25 and the “M. Mandelkern, J. G. Elias, D. Eden, and D. M. Crothers, J. Mol. Biol.
size and shape changes that occur on binding of pro- 152, 153 (1981).
‘*J. G. Elias and D. Eden, Biopolymers 20, 2368 ( 1981).
teins,26V27platinum anticancer drugs,‘” and antibiotics to “W. Eimer, Ph.D. thesis, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Federal Repub-
DNA.2g The Z form of DNA., for instance, forms a helix that lic of Germany, 1987.
is thought to be approximately 10% thinner and approxi- “‘P. H. van Cittert, Z. Phys. 69, 298 ( 1931).
. mately 29% more extended than that of the B form. Changes ” S. S. Sorlie, Ph.D. thesis, Stanford University, Stanford, California, 1988.
“S. W. Provencher, Comput. Phys. Comm. 27,213,239 (1982).
of this extent should be relatively easy to follow by our meth- “S. E. Bott, Ph.D. thesis, Stanford University, Stanford, California 1984.
ods. The use of NMR techniques” along with the dynamic ““S. S. Sorlie and R. Pecora, Macromolecules 21, 1437 ( 1988).
light scattering techniques would be an even more powerful “T. M. Jovin and D. M. Soumpasis, Ann. Rev. Phys. Chem. 38, 521
combination, allowing the study of both overall and local (1987).
*6A. A. Travers, Ann. Rev. Biochem. 58,427 (1989).
dynamics. “Z. Otwinowski, R. W. Schevitz, R.-G. Zhang, C. L. Lawson, A. Joachi-
miak, R. Q. Marmorstein, B. F. Luisi, and P. B. Sigler, Nature (London)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 335,321 (1988). *.
“S. F. Shermarrand S. J. Lippard, Chem. Rev. 87, 1133 (1987).
This work was supported by National Science Founda- 2’Topics in Nucleic Acid Structure, edited by S. Neidle (Macmillan, Lon-
tion Grant No. CHE-88-14641 to R.P., and by the NSF- don, 1982).