X-rays and neutrons for the study of DNA structure, hydration, and transitions

Ingrid M. Parrot; Valerie Laux; Volker Urban; Michael Haertlein; V. Trevor Forsyth

doi:10.1016/j.physb.2006.05.123

X-rays and neutrons for the study of DNA structure, hydration, and transitions

Ingrid M. Parrot, Valerie Laux, Volker Urban, Michael Haertlein, V. Trevor Forsyth

Neutron Scattering Division

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

X-ray fibre diffraction methods have provided a major contribution to our understanding of a wide variety of biological polymers. However they are less effective for study of location of water and hydrogen atoms in these systems. Here neutron methods can provide vital information. The ability to deuterate biopolymers either throughout the entire molecule or in a more specific way adds a powerful dimension to work aimed at investigating hydration patterns or hydrogen positions and changes that occur during water-driven transitions. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how X-ray and neutron fibre diffraction methods can provide powerful probes of polymer structure when used in a genuinely complementary way. Two examples illustrating these issues are described. The first describes an X-ray fibre diffraction study of the A-B structural transition in natural DNA. The second describes preliminary results from the first neutron fibre diffraction study of a selectively labelled DNA polymer carried out on the instrument D19 at ILL using samples prepared in the ILL-EMBL Deuteration Laboratory.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	848-852
Number of pages	5
Journal	Physica B: Physics of Condensed Matter
Volume	385-386
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physb.2006.05.123
State	Published - Nov 15 2006

Funding

We acknowledge S. Mason and J. Archer at the ILL, and Peter Boesecke, A. Hammersley, T. Narayanan and P. Panine at the ESRF. We also acknowledge the enormous contribution of the ILL Detector Group. We acknowledge support from EPSRC under grants GR/R99393/01, GR/R47950/01, EP/C015452/1 and from the EU under contracts HPRI–2001–50065 and RII3–CT–2003–505925. VU wishes to acknowledge financial support by the OBER, US DOE, under contract no. DE–AC05–00OR22725 with ORNL, managed and operated by UT-Battelle, LLC.

Funders	Funder number
U.S. Department of Energy
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council	EP/C015452/1, GR/R99393/01, GR/R47950/01
European Commission	HPRI–2001–50065, RII3–CT–2003–505925

Keywords

DNA hydration
DNA polymorphism
DNA structural transitions
Deuteration
Neutron fibre diffraction
X-ray fibre diffraction

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10.1016/j.physb.2006.05.123

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title = "X-rays and neutrons for the study of DNA structure, hydration, and transitions",

abstract = "X-ray fibre diffraction methods have provided a major contribution to our understanding of a wide variety of biological polymers. However they are less effective for study of location of water and hydrogen atoms in these systems. Here neutron methods can provide vital information. The ability to deuterate biopolymers either throughout the entire molecule or in a more specific way adds a powerful dimension to work aimed at investigating hydration patterns or hydrogen positions and changes that occur during water-driven transitions. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how X-ray and neutron fibre diffraction methods can provide powerful probes of polymer structure when used in a genuinely complementary way. Two examples illustrating these issues are described. The first describes an X-ray fibre diffraction study of the A-B structural transition in natural DNA. The second describes preliminary results from the first neutron fibre diffraction study of a selectively labelled DNA polymer carried out on the instrument D19 at ILL using samples prepared in the ILL-EMBL Deuteration Laboratory.",

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AU - Laux, Valerie

AU - Urban, Volker

AU - Haertlein, Michael

AU - Trevor Forsyth, V.

PY - 2006/11/15

Y1 - 2006/11/15

N2 - X-ray fibre diffraction methods have provided a major contribution to our understanding of a wide variety of biological polymers. However they are less effective for study of location of water and hydrogen atoms in these systems. Here neutron methods can provide vital information. The ability to deuterate biopolymers either throughout the entire molecule or in a more specific way adds a powerful dimension to work aimed at investigating hydration patterns or hydrogen positions and changes that occur during water-driven transitions. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how X-ray and neutron fibre diffraction methods can provide powerful probes of polymer structure when used in a genuinely complementary way. Two examples illustrating these issues are described. The first describes an X-ray fibre diffraction study of the A-B structural transition in natural DNA. The second describes preliminary results from the first neutron fibre diffraction study of a selectively labelled DNA polymer carried out on the instrument D19 at ILL using samples prepared in the ILL-EMBL Deuteration Laboratory.

AB - X-ray fibre diffraction methods have provided a major contribution to our understanding of a wide variety of biological polymers. However they are less effective for study of location of water and hydrogen atoms in these systems. Here neutron methods can provide vital information. The ability to deuterate biopolymers either throughout the entire molecule or in a more specific way adds a powerful dimension to work aimed at investigating hydration patterns or hydrogen positions and changes that occur during water-driven transitions. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how X-ray and neutron fibre diffraction methods can provide powerful probes of polymer structure when used in a genuinely complementary way. Two examples illustrating these issues are described. The first describes an X-ray fibre diffraction study of the A-B structural transition in natural DNA. The second describes preliminary results from the first neutron fibre diffraction study of a selectively labelled DNA polymer carried out on the instrument D19 at ILL using samples prepared in the ILL-EMBL Deuteration Laboratory.

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KW - DNA polymorphism

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ER -

X-rays and neutrons for the study of DNA structure, hydration, and transitions

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

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