The use of spectroscopic techniques in the study of DNA stability

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Jr SantaLucia
Keyword(s):  
Nucleic Acid ◽  
Diagnostic Tests ◽  
Accurate Determination ◽  
Spectroscopic Techniques ◽  
Dna And Rna ◽  
Repair Efficiency ◽  
Primary Literature ◽  
Folding Thermodynamics ◽  
Data Analysis Methods

Accurate determination of nucleic acid thermodynamics has become increasingly important in understanding biological function as well as applications in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. Knowledge of the thermodynamics of DNA hybridization and secondary structure formation is necessary for understanding DNA replication fidelity (1), mismatch repair efficiency (2) and the mechanism of DNA triplet repeat diseases (3). In addition, RNA folding thermodynamics are an important aspect of understanding ribozyme catalysis, as well as understanding the regulation of protein expression, mRNA stability and the mechanism of protein synthesis by the ribosome (4). With the genome sequencing era upon us (5), it will increasingly become important to predict the folding and hybridization thermodynamics of DNA and RNA, so that accurate diagnostic tests for genetic and infectious diseases can be developed. Thus, there is a need to develop a database of accurate thermodynamic parameters for different nucleic acid folding motifs (4). This chapter describes practical aspects of the application of UV absorbance temperature profiles to determine the thermodynamics of nucleic acid structural transitions. Protocols and practical advice are presented for issues not normally addressed in the primary literature but that are crucial for the determination of reliable thermodynamics, such as sequence design, sample preparation, choice of buffer, protocols for determining strand concentrations and mixing strands, design of microvolume cuvettes and cell holder, instrumental requirements, data analysis methods, and sources of error. References to the primary literature and reviews are also provided where appropriate.

scholarly journals Analysis of Inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 by Specimen Transport Media, Nucleic Acid Extraction Reagents, Detergents, and Fixatives

2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Welch ◽  
Katherine A. Davies ◽  
Hubert Buczkowski ◽  
Nipunadi Hettiarachchi ◽  
Nicole Green ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nucleic Acid ◽  
Infectious Virus ◽  
Clinical Sample ◽  
Accurate Determination ◽  
Acid Extraction ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Nucleic Acid Extraction ◽  
Human Coronavirus ◽  
Critical Data

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated a multifaceted rapid response by the scientific community, bringing researchers, health officials, and industry together to address the ongoing public health emergency. To meet this challenge, participants need an informed approach for working safely with the etiological agent, the novel human coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Work with infectious SARS-CoV-2 is currently restricted to high-containment laboratories, but material can be handled at a lower containment level after inactivation. Given the wide array of inactivation reagents that are being used in laboratories during this pandemic, it is vital that their effectiveness is thoroughly investigated. Here, we evaluated a total of 23 commercial reagents designed for clinical sample transportation, nucleic acid extraction, and virus inactivation for their ability to inactivate SARS-CoV-2, as well as seven other common chemicals, including detergents and fixatives. As part of this study, we have also tested five filtration matrices for their effectiveness at removing the cytotoxic elements of each reagent, permitting accurate determination of levels of infectious virus remaining following treatment. In addition to providing critical data informing inactivation methods and risk assessments for diagnostic and research laboratories working with SARS-CoV-2, these data provide a framework for other laboratories to validate their inactivation processes and to guide similar studies for other pathogens.

scholarly journals Inactivation analysis of SARS-CoV-2 by specimen transport media, nucleic acid extraction reagents, detergents and fixatives

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Welch ◽  
Katherine A. Davies ◽  
Hubert Buczkowski ◽  
Nipunadi Hettiarachchi ◽  
Nicole Green ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nucleic Acid ◽  
Infectious Virus ◽  
Clinical Sample ◽  
Accurate Determination ◽  
Acid Extraction ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Nucleic Acid Extraction ◽  
Human Coronavirus ◽  
Critical Data

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated a rapid multi-faceted response by the scientific community, bringing researchers, health officials and industry together to address the ongoing public health emergency. To meet this challenge, participants need an informed approach for working safely with the etiological agent, the novel human coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Work with infectious SARS-CoV-2 is currently restricted to high-containment laboratories, but material can be handled at a lower containment level after inactivation. Given the wide array of inactivation reagents that are being used in laboratories during this pandemic, it is vital that their effectiveness is thoroughly investigated. Here, we evaluated a total of 23 commercial reagents designed for clinical sample transportation, nucleic acid extraction and virus inactivation for their ability to inactivate SARS-CoV-2, as well as seven other common chemicals including detergents and fixatives. As part of this study, we have also tested five filtration matrices for their effectiveness at removing the cytotoxic elements of each reagent, permitting accurate determination of levels of infectious virus remaining following treatment. In addition to providing critical data informing inactivation methods and risk assessments for diagnostic and research laboratories working with SARS-CoV-2, these data provide a framework for other laboratories to validate their inactivation processes and to guide similar studies for other pathogens.

Toehold probe-based interrogation for haplotype phasing of long nucleic acid strands

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (34) ◽  
pp. 4185-4190
Author(s):  
Xinyu Zhuang ◽  
Henson L. Lee Yu ◽  
I-Ming Hsing
Keyword(s):  
Nucleic Acid ◽  
Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Accurate Determination ◽  
Nucleotide Polymorphisms ◽  
Single Nucleotide ◽  
Haplotype Phasing ◽  
Haplotype Phase

The arrangement of multiple single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a gene, called a haplotype phase, is increasingly recognized as critical for accurate determination of disease risk and severity.

scholarly journals A quantitative luminescence assay for nonradioactive nucleic acid probes.

1996 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 657-660 ◽  
Author(s):  
V V Didenko ◽  
P J Hornsby
Keyword(s):  
Alkaline Phosphatase ◽  
Nucleic Acid ◽  
Nucleic Acids ◽  
Light Emission ◽  
Accurate Determination ◽  
Nucleic Acid Probes ◽  
Radioactive Label ◽  
Luminescence Assay ◽  
Antibody Conjugate

In histochemical work with digoxigenin- or biotin-labeled nucleic acid probes, reproducibility of in situ hybridization depends on accurate measurement of the amount of non-radioactive label being used. We describe a rapid and sensitive assay for nonradioactive label incorporated into nucleic acids employing a luminogenic substrate for alkaline phosphatase, CSPD (disodium 3-(4-methoxyspirol¿1,2-dioxetane-3,2'-(5'-chloro)tricyclo [3.3.1.1(3,7)]decan¿-4-yl)phenyl phosphate). An alkaline phosphatase-antibody conjugate was bound to digoxigenin-labeled nucleic acids spotted on nylon membranes. Light emission from the reaction of the bound alkaline phosphatase with CSPD was measured with a luminometer. This method allows an accurate determination of digoxigenin incorporated into nucleic acid probes in the range of 0.5-500 fmol of nonradioactive label.

A quantitative approach to inner shell losses

1978 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 526-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.D. Leapman ◽  
P. Rez ◽  
D.F. Mayers
Keyword(s):  
Energy Transfer ◽  
Cross Section ◽  
Cross Sections ◽  
Accurate Determination ◽  
Background Intensity ◽  
Core Excitation ◽  
Quantitative Basis ◽  
Cross Section Differential ◽  
Bound Electrons

Microanalysis by EELS has been developing rapidly and though the general form of the spectrum is now understood there is a need to put the technique on a more quantitative basis (1,2). Certain aspects important for microanalysis include: (i) accurate determination of the partial cross sections, σx(α,ΔE) for core excitation when scattering lies inside collection angle a and energy range ΔE above the edge, (ii) behavior of the background intensity due to excitation of less strongly bound electrons, necessary for extrapolation beneath the signal of interest, (iii) departures from the simple hydrogenic K-edge seen in L and M losses, effecting σx and complicating microanalysis. Such problems might be approached empirically but here we describe how computation can elucidate the spectrum shape.The inelastic cross section differential with respect to energy transfer E and momentum transfer q for electrons of energy E0 and velocity v can be written as

High-resolution nucleic acid sequence mapping via in situ hybridization at the Electron Microscope level

1995 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 752-753
Author(s):  
B.A. Hamkalo ◽  
S. Narayanswami ◽  
A.P. Kausch
Keyword(s):  
Nucleic Acid ◽  
Interphase Nucleus ◽  
Genome Mapping ◽  
Precise Location ◽  
Electron Microscope Level ◽  
Rna Sequences ◽  
Fundamental Interest ◽  
Whole Cells ◽  
Dna And Rna

The availability of nonradioactive methods to label nucleic acids an the resultant rapid and greater sensitivity of detection has catapulted the technique of in situ hybridization to become the method of choice to locate of specific DNA and RNA sequences on chromosomes and in whole cells in cytological preparations in many areas of biology. It is being applied to problems of fundamental interest to basic cell and molecular biologists such as the organization of the interphase nucleus in the context of putative functional domains; it is making major contributions to genome mapping efforts; and it is being applied to the analysis of clinical specimens. Although fluorescence detection of nucleic acid hybrids is routinely used, certain questions require greater resolution. For example, very closely linked sequences may not be separable using fluorescence; the precise location of sequences with respect to chromosome structures may be below the resolution of light microscopy(LM); and the relative positions of sequences on very small chromosomes may not be feasible.

Fast calibration of CBED patterns for quantitative analysis

1993 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 674-675
Author(s):  
M.A. Gribelyuk ◽  
M. Rühle
Keyword(s):  
Reciprocal Lattice ◽  
Accurate Determination ◽  
Incident Beam ◽  
Crystal Thickness ◽  
Structure Model ◽  
Beam Direction ◽  
Transmitted Beam ◽  
Reciprocal Vector ◽  
On Line

A new method is suggested for the accurate determination of the incident beam direction K, crystal thickness t and the coordinates of the basic reciprocal lattice vectors V1 and V2 (Fig. 1) of the ZOLZ plans in pixels of the digitized 2-D CBED pattern. For a given structure model and some estimated values Vest and Kest of some point O in the CBED pattern a set of line scans AkBk is chosen so that all the scans are located within CBED disks.The points on line scans AkBk are conjugate to those on A0B0 since they are shifted by the reciprocal vector gk with respect to each other. As many conjugate scans are considered as CBED disks fall into the energy filtered region of the experimental pattern. Electron intensities of the transmitted beam I0 and diffracted beams Igk for all points on conjugate scans are found as a function of crystal thickness t on the basis of the full dynamical calculation.

Imaging of ribosomal RNA-protein interactions by dark-field STEM

1989 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 250-251
Author(s):  
M. Boublik ◽  
V. Mandiyan ◽  
S. Tumminia ◽  
J.F. Hainfeld ◽  
J.S. Wall
Keyword(s):  
Nucleic Acid ◽  
16S Rrna ◽  
Dark Field ◽  
Radius Of Gyration ◽  
Central Domain ◽  
The Core ◽  
16S Rna ◽  
30S Subunit ◽  
Core Particles

Success in protein-free deposition of native nucleic acid molecules from solutions of selected ionic conditions prompted attempts for high resolution imaging of nucleic acid interactions with proteins, not attainable by conventional EM. Since the nucleic acid molecules can be visualized in the dark-field STEM mode without contrasting by heavy atoms, the established linearity between scattering cross-section and molecular weight can be applied to the determination of their molecular mass (M) linear density (M/L), mass distribution and radius of gyration (RG). Determination of these parameters promotes electron microscopic imaging of biological macromolecules by STEM to a quantitative analytical level. This technique is applied to study the mechanism of 16S rRNA folding during the assembly process of the 30S ribosomal subunit of E. coli. The sequential addition of protein S4 which binds to the 5'end of the 16S rRNA and S8 and S15 which bind to the central domain of the molecule leads to a corresponding increase of mass and increased coiling of the 16S rRNA in the core particles. This increased compactness is evident from the decrease in RG values from 114Å to 91Å (in “ribosomal” buffer consisting of 10 mM Hepes pH 7.6, 60 mM KCl, 2 m Mg(OAc)2, 1 mM DTT). The binding of S20, S17 and S7 which interact with the 5'domain, the central domain and the 3'domain, respectively, continues the trend of mass increase. However, the RG values of the core particles exhibit a reverse trend, an increase to 108Å. In addition, the binding of S7 leads to the formation of a globular mass cluster with a diameter of about 115Å and a mass of ∽300 kDa. The rest of the mass, about 330 kDa, remains loosely coiled giving the particle a “medusa-like” appearance. These results provide direct evidence that 16S RNA undergoes significant structural reorganization during the 30S subunit assembly and show that its interactions with the six primary binding proteins are not sufficient for 16S rRNA coiling into particles resembling the native 30S subunit, contrary to what has been reported in the literature.

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