Publication details
CIRCULAR DICHROISM SPECTROSCOPY OF NUCLEIC ACIDS
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| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
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| Description | Circular dichroism (CD) arises from differential absorption of right-handed and left-handed circularly polarized light by chiral molecules. In nucleic acids there are three sources of chirality. First is the asymmetric sugar; this chirality causes monomeric nucleosides to exhibit CD. The second source is the helicity of the secondary structures adopted by nucleic acids. The third source of CD results from long-range tertiary ordering of DNA in some environments. CD of monomeric constituents of nucleic acids and short single-stranded fragments were described previously. The theory of CD is well-developed and complex. Nevertheless, the use of CD spectroscopy to elucidate nucleic acid secondary structure is mainly based on empirical grounds. Conventional CD spectroscopy operates within the spectral range of about 200 nm to 320 nm. For these measurements, conventional spectrometers are used. CD spectroscopy is even more sensitive and informative in the far UV region below 200 nm, but these measurements are difficult to perform and the specialized instruments required are expensive. CD spectra of nucleic acids can also be measured in the infrared region, but here the method is much less sensitive. In this chapter we will focus on CD results obtained in the 200- to 320-nm range, the range mostly used to study secondary structures of nucleic acids. |
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