The influence of metallic ions such as Cd
2+, Cu
2+ and Hg
2+ on the poly (A)·poly (U) duplex formed by an equimolar mixture of poly (A) and poly (U) was studied by using a modified differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) with a help of the spectral measurements.
The transition temperature,
T1, of poly (A)·poly (U) duplex shows a definite value of about 315K which is nearly independent of
r (the mole ratio of metallic ion to phosphate in polynucleotide).
While, the dependence of the heat of helix-coil transition, Δ
H, on
r was divided into two cases: in the first case, when
r is less than 10
-2, Δ
H for Cu
2+ and Cd
2+ systems increases with an increase of
r, but Δ
H for Hg
2+ system is a definite value which is nearly independent of
r. In the second case, when
r is in excess of 10
-2, Δ
H for all systems shows a drastic decrease as
r increases.
From the results of spectral measurements obtained, poly (A)·poly (U) duplex seems to form a complex with Cu
2+ or Hg
2+ at room temperature when
r is more than 10
-2 except for Cd
2+ system, and random coil structure of poly (A) and poly (U) obtained in which are the helix-coil transition of poly (A)·poly (U) duplex interacts also with metallic ions, and its interaction is expected to be exothermic. While, the behavior for Cd
2+ system is the same to that of Cu
2+ or Hg
2+ system. However, the effects of poly (A)·poly (U) duplex on Cd
2+ may differ from those of Cu
2+ or Hg
2+ systems.
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