| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
Biophys J, December 1999, p. 3242-3251, Vol. 77, No. 6
Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota 55108 USA
In this paper we analyze published data on
H and S values for the DNA melting
transition under various conditions. We show that there is a
significant heat capacity increase Cp
associated with DNA melting, in the range of 40-100 cal/mol K per base
pair. This is larger than the transition entropy per base pair,
S0 
25 cal/mol K. The ratio of
Cp/S0 determines
the importance of heat capacity effects on melting. For DNA this ratio
is 2-4, larger than for many proteins. We discuss how
Cp values can be extracted from experimental
data on the dependence of H and S on the
melting temperature Tm. We consider studies of
DNA melting as a function of ionic strength and show that while
polyelectrolyte theory provides a good description of the dependence of
Tm on salt, electrostatics alone cannot explain the accompanying strong variation of H and
S. While Tm is only weakly
affected by Cp, its dependence on one
parameter (e.g., salt) as a function of another (e.g., DNA composition)
is determined by Cp. We show how this
accounts for the stronger stabilization of AT relative to GC base pairs
with increasing ionic strength. We analyze the source of discrepancies
in H as determined by calorimetry and van't Hoff
analysis and discuss ways of analyzing data that yield valid van't
Hoff H. Finally, we define a standard state for DNA
melting, the temperature at which thermal contributions to
H and S vanish, by analyzing experimental
data over a broad range of stabilities.
Biophys J, December 1999, p. 3242-3251, Vol. 77, No. 6
© 1999 by the Biophysical Society 0006-3495/99/12/3242/10 $2.00
This article has been cited by other articles:
 |
|
 |
|
  A. N. Lane, J. B. Chaires, R. D. Gray, and J. O. Trent Stability and kinetics of G-quadruplex structures Nucleic Acids Res., October 1, 2008; 36(17): 5482 - 5515. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
S. V. Kuznetsov, C.-C. Ren, S. A. Woodson, and A. Ansari Loop dependence of the stability and dynamics of nucleic acid hairpins Nucleic Acids Res., March 27, 2008; 36(4): 1098 - 1112. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 Z.-J. Tan and S.-J. Chen RNA Helix Stability in Mixed Na+/Mg2+ Solution Biophys. J., May 15, 2007; 92(10): 3615 - 3632. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. B. Fiche, A. Buhot, R. Calemczuk, and T. Livache Temperature Effects on DNA Chip Experiments from Surface Plasmon Resonance Imaging: Isotherms and Melting Curves Biophys. J., February 1, 2007; 92(3): 935 - 946. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
Z.-J. Tan and S.-J. Chen Nucleic Acid Helix Stability: Effects of Salt Concentration, Cation Valence and Size, and Chain Length Biophys. J., February 15, 2006; 90(4): 1175 - 1190. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
O. Punkkinen, P. L. Hansen, L. Miao, and I. Vattulainen DNA Overstretching Transition: Ionic Strength Effects Biophys. J., August 1, 2005; 89(2): 967 - 978. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
S. Amrane, B. Sacca, M. Mills, M. Chauhan, H. H. Klump, and J.-L. Mergny Length-dependent energetics of (CTG)n and (CAG)n trinucleotide repeats Nucleic Acids Res., July 21, 2005; 33(13): 4065 - 4077. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. D. Weeks, J. B. Lucks, Y. Kafri, C. Danilowicz, D. R. Nelson, and M. Prentiss Pause Point Spectra in DNA Constant-Force Unzipping Biophys. J., April 1, 2005; 88(4): 2752 - 2765. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
P. J. Mikulecky and A. L. Feig Heat capacity changes in RNA folding: application of perturbation theory to hammerhead ribozyme cold denaturation Nucleic Acids Res., July 28, 2004; 32(13): 3967 - 3976. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
R. Meunier-Prest, S. Raveau, E. Finot, G. Legay, M. Cherkaoui-Malki, and N. Latruffe Direct measurement of the melting temperature of supported DNA by electrochemical method Nucleic Acids Res., December 1, 2003; 31(23): e150 - e150. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 J. Volker, N. Makube, G. E. Plum, H. H. Klump, and K. J. Breslauer Conformational energetics of stable and metastable states formed by DNA triplet repeat oligonucleotides: Implications for triplet expansion diseases PNAS, November 12, 2002; 99(23): 14700 - 14705. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
L. Movileanu, J. M. Benevides, and G. J. Thomas Jr Determination of base and backbone contributions to the thermodynamics of premelting and melting transitions in B DNA Nucleic Acids Res., September 1, 2002; 30(17): 3767 - 3777. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
M.-H. Hou, S.-B. Lin, J.-M. P. Yuann, W.-C. Lin, A. H.-J. Wang, and L.-s. Kan Effects of polyamines on the thermal stability and formation kinetics of DNA duplexes with abnormal structure Nucleic Acids Res., December 15, 2001; 29(24): 5121 - 5128. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
M. I. Wallace, L. Ying, S. Balasubramanian, and D. Klenerman Non-Arrhenius kinetics for the loop closure of a DNA hairpin PNAS, April 18, 2001; (2001) 101523498. [Abstract] [Full Text]
|
|
|
|
|
|
P. Wu and N. Sugimoto Transition characteristics and thermodynamic analysis of DNA duplex formation: a quantitative consideration for the extent of duplex association Nucleic Acids Res., December 1, 2000; 28(23): 4762 - 4768. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
M. I. Wallace, L. Ying, S. Balasubramanian, and D. Klenerman Non-Arrhenius kinetics for the loop closure of a DNA hairpin PNAS, May 8, 2001; 98(10): 5584 - 5589. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
