Counting the ions surrounding nucleic acids

Nucleic acids are strongly negatively charged, and thus electrostatic interactions-screened by ions in solution-play an important role in governing their ability to fold and participate in biomolecular interactions. The negative charge creates a region, known as the ion atmosphere, in which cation a...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nucleic acids research 2017-02, Vol.45 (4), p.1596-1605
Main Authors: Jacobson, David R, Saleh, Omar A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Dialysis
Ions - chemistry
Models, Molecular
Models, Theoretical
Nucleic Acids - chemistry
Survey and Summary
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Nucleic acids are strongly negatively charged, and thus electrostatic interactions-screened by ions in solution-play an important role in governing their ability to fold and participate in biomolecular interactions. The negative charge creates a region, known as the ion atmosphere, in which cation and anion concentrations are perturbed from their bulk values. Ion counting experiments quantify the ion atmosphere by measuring the preferential ion interaction coefficient: the net total number of excess ions above, or below, the number expected due to the bulk concentration. The results of such studies provide important constraints on theories, which typically predict the full three-dimensional distribution of the screening cloud. This article reviews the state of nucleic acid ion counting measurements and critically analyzes their ability to test both analytical and simulation-based models.
ISSN:0305-1048
1362-4962
DOI:10.1093/nar/gkw1305