Electrostatics of Polymorphic DNA

Abstract

The molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) and the molecular electrostatic field (MEF) are associated with significantly different patterns of distribution in the nucleic acids and their constituents. In particular, a) while the values of the minimal potentials at the reactive sites of the bases or at the phosphates increase manyfold when going from the subunits to the double helix, the values of the field undergo only very small changes under the same circumstances and b) while the deepest potentials are located in the grooves of the double helix, the greatest fields are concentrated on the phosphates of the backbone. They are also influenced differently by such environmental factors as counterion screening: while the absolute values of the potentials are profoundly reduced, the fields are increased with respect to those of the unscreened acids. MEP and MEF also govern the electrostatics of interaction of DNA with different types of species. The MEP being of particular significance in this respect for interaction with cations and the MEF for the association with neutral dipolar molecules. A number of examples are given to illustrate the significance of this situation for different conformers of DNA.