Journal
BIOCHEMICAL JOURNAL
Volume 388, Issue -, Pages 427-433Publisher
PORTLAND PRESS LTD
DOI: 10.1042/BJ20041778
Keywords
differential scanning calorimetry (DSC); nucleic acid; polyamine; thermal denaturation; tetrakis(3-aminopropyl)ammonium; Thermus thermophilus
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Extreme ther-mophiles produce two types of unusual polyamine: long linear polvarnines such as caldopentainine and caldohexamine, and branched polyamines such as quaternary ammonium compounds [e.g. tetrakis(3-aminopropyl)ammonium]. To clarify the physiological roles of long linear and branched polyamines in thermophiles, we synthesized them chemically and tested their effects on the stability of ds (double-stranded) and ss (single-stranded) DNAs and tRNA in response to thermal denaturation, as measured by differential scanning calorimetry. Linear polyamines stabilized dsDNA in proportion to the number of amino nitrogen atoms within their molecular Structure. We used the empirical results to derive formulae that estimate the melting temperature of dsDNA in the presence of polyamines of a particular molecular composition. ssDNA and tRNA were stabilized more effectively by tetrakis(3-aminopropyl)ammonium than any of the other polyamines tested. We propose that long linear polyamines are effective to stabilize DNA, and tetrakis(3-amino-propyl)ammonium plays important roles in stabilizing RNAs in thermophile cells.
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