The hyperchromic effect of ultraviolet spectroscopy shows that adding recombinant human neuronal tau to the solution of calf thymus DNA will promote the melting temperature (Tm) from 67℃ to 81 ℃. Similar result has ...The hyperchromic effect of ultraviolet spectroscopy shows that adding recombinant human neuronal tau to the solution of calf thymus DNA will promote the melting temperature (Tm) from 67℃ to 81 ℃. Similar result has been detected when adding tau to plasmid pBluescript-Ⅱ SK, by raising Tm from 75℃ to 85℃. The kinetics of thermal denaturation of DNA with tau is much slower than that of control. It suggests that tau may stabilize the double helix conformation of DNA.展开更多
High resolution structural studies of DNA and DNA binding proteins by atomic force microscopy(AFM) require well-bound samples on suitably flat substrates. Adsorbing the DNA onto a positively charged supported lipid bi...High resolution structural studies of DNA and DNA binding proteins by atomic force microscopy(AFM) require well-bound samples on suitably flat substrates. Adsorbing the DNA onto a positively charged supported lipid bilayer has previously been shown to be a potentially effective strategy for structural studies with AFM. Here, using our home-built frequency-modulation AFM(FM-AFM), we show that these bilayer substrates are only maximally effective for high resolution AFM when the samples are short, linear DNA, compared with circular plasmid DNA. We find that, with the former sample, the measured width of the DNA is about 2 nm, the known DNA diameter, and there is a clear height modulation along the length of the DNA with a periodicity of about 3.4 nm, in excellent agreement with the known pitch of the double helix. This sample preparation strategy is expected to enable higher resolution studies of DNA and DNA binding proteins with FM-AFM than that can presently be achieved.展开更多
文摘The hyperchromic effect of ultraviolet spectroscopy shows that adding recombinant human neuronal tau to the solution of calf thymus DNA will promote the melting temperature (Tm) from 67℃ to 81 ℃. Similar result has been detected when adding tau to plasmid pBluescript-Ⅱ SK, by raising Tm from 75℃ to 85℃. The kinetics of thermal denaturation of DNA with tau is much slower than that of control. It suggests that tau may stabilize the double helix conformation of DNA.
基金the National Basic Research Program(973) of China(No.2013CB932801)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.991129000,11374207,11375253,31370750,21273148 and 11074168)the Fund of Chinese Academy of Sciences(No.KJCX2-EW-N03)
文摘High resolution structural studies of DNA and DNA binding proteins by atomic force microscopy(AFM) require well-bound samples on suitably flat substrates. Adsorbing the DNA onto a positively charged supported lipid bilayer has previously been shown to be a potentially effective strategy for structural studies with AFM. Here, using our home-built frequency-modulation AFM(FM-AFM), we show that these bilayer substrates are only maximally effective for high resolution AFM when the samples are short, linear DNA, compared with circular plasmid DNA. We find that, with the former sample, the measured width of the DNA is about 2 nm, the known DNA diameter, and there is a clear height modulation along the length of the DNA with a periodicity of about 3.4 nm, in excellent agreement with the known pitch of the double helix. This sample preparation strategy is expected to enable higher resolution studies of DNA and DNA binding proteins with FM-AFM than that can presently be achieved.
