title: Enhancement and inhibition of DNA transcriptional activity by spermine: a marked difference between linear and circular templates.
abstract: We compared the transcriptional activities of the circular and linear forms of short (4kbp) and giant (106kbp) DNA molecules in the presence of a polyamine, spermine (4+). With an increase in the spermine concentration, transcriptional activity was enhanced, followed by an inhibitory effect, and complete inhibition was observed in the sole case of long, linear templates. A difference between the transcriptional properties of circular and linear conformations is found for giant DNA molecules. These results are discussed in relation to DNA conformational transitions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan.
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Luckel
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kubo
authors.forename: Kanta
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsumoto
authors.forename: Kenichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yoshikawa
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D013096:Spermine / Q000378:metabolism*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D013096:Spermine; D004247:DNA