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SAXS-data-based structural modeling of DNA–gadolinium complexes fixed in particles of cholesteric liquid-crystalline dispersions

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Abstract

Structure of cholesteric liquid-crystalline dispersions (CLCDs) formed by double-stranded DNA molecules and treated with gadolinium salts was studied by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The obtained SAXS data open the way for structural modeling of these complexes to obtain a reasonable explanation for the correlated decrease in amplitude of an abnormal negative band in the circular dichroism (CD) spectra and the characteristic Bragg peak in the experimental small-angle X-ray scattering curves observed on treatment of CLCD by gadolinium salts. Model simulations of different kinds of structural organizations of the DNA–gadolinium complex were performed using novel SAXS data analysis methods in combination with several new, complementary modeling techniques, enabling us to build low-resolution three-dimensional structural models of DNA–gadolinium complexes fixed in CLCD particles. The obtained models allow us to suggest that a change takes place in the helical twist of quasinematic layers formed by these molecules at high concentrations of gadolinium salt. This change in the twist can be used to explain the experimentally observed increase in amplitude of an abnormal band in the CD spectra of DNA CLCD.

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Abbreviations

CLCDs:

Cholesteric liquid-crystalline dispersions

CD:

Circular dichroism

SAXS:

Experimental small-angle X-ray scattering

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Acknowledgments

This work has been supported, in part, by the European Union FP6 Infrastructures Program (Design Study SAXIER, RIDS 011934) and by a grant from the Leading Scientific School Program (1955.2008.2).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Crystallography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky pr. 59, Moscow, 119333, Russia

    E. V. Shtykova & V. V. Volkov

  2. Institute of Molecular Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vavilova st., 32, Moscow, 119991, Russia

    V. I. Salyanov & Yu. M. Yevdokimov

Authors
  1. E. V. Shtykova
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  2. V. V. Volkov
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  3. V. I. Salyanov
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  4. Yu. M. Yevdokimov
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Correspondence to E. V. Shtykova or V. V. Volkov.

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Shtykova, E.V., Volkov, V.V., Salyanov, V.I. et al. SAXS-data-based structural modeling of DNA–gadolinium complexes fixed in particles of cholesteric liquid-crystalline dispersions. Eur Biophys J 39, 1313–1322 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00249-010-0584-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00249-010-0584-0

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