Skip Navigation


Nucleic Acids Research Advance Access originally published online on February 3, 2009
Nucleic Acids Research 2009 37(6):1713-1725; doi:10.1093/nar/gkp026
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow Print PDF (8907K) Freely available
Right arrow Screen PDF (1119K) Freely available
Right arrowOA All Versions of this Article:
37/6/1713    most recent
gkp026v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (1)
Right arrow Commercial Re-use Guidelines
for Open Access NAR Content
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Kypr, J.
Right arrow Articles by Vorlícková, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Kypr, J.
Right arrow Articles by Vorlícková, M.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Nucleic Acids Research, 2009, Vol. 37, No. 6 1713-1725
© 2009 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Survey and Summary

Circular dichroism and conformational polymorphism of DNA

Jaroslav Kypr*, Iva Kejnovská, Daniel Renciuk and Michaela Vorlícková*

Institute of Biophysics, v. v. i. Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Královopolská 135, CZ-612 65, Brno, Czech Republic

*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +420 541 517 198 or +420 541 517 188; Fax: +420 541 240 497; Email: mifi{at}ibp.cz Correspondence may also be addressed to Jaroslav Kypr. Tel: +420 541 517 198; Fax: +420 541 240 497; Email: kypr{at}ibp.cz

Received September 30, 2008. Revised January 8, 2009. Accepted January 11, 2009.

Here we review studies that provided important information about conformational properties of DNA using circular dichroic (CD) spectroscopy. The conformational properties include the B-family of structures, A-form, Z-form, guanine quadruplexes, cytosine quadruplexes, triplexes and other less characterized structures. CD spectroscopy is extremely sensitive and relatively inexpensive. This fast and simple method can be used at low- as well as high-DNA concentrations and with short- as well as long-DNA molecules. The samples can easily be titrated with various agents to cause conformational isomerizations of DNA. The course of detected CD spectral changes makes possible to distinguish between gradual changes within a single DNA conformation and cooperative isomerizations between discrete structural states. It enables measuring kinetics of the appearance of particular conformers and determination of their thermodynamic parameters. In careful hands, CD spectroscopy is a valuable tool for mapping conformational properties of particular DNA molecules. Due to its numerous advantages, CD spectroscopy significantly participated in all basic conformational findings on DNA.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Nucleic Acids ResHome page
D. Renciuk, I. Kejnovska, P. Skolakova, K. Bednarova, J. Motlova, and M. Vorlickova
Arrangements of human telomere DNA quadruplex in physiologically relevant K+ solutions
Nucleic Acids Res., October 1, 2009; 37(19): 6625 - 6634.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.