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Biophysical and electrochemical studies of protein–nucleic acid interactions

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Abstract

This review is devoted to biophysical and electrochemical methods used for studying protein–nucleic acid (NA) interactions. The importance of NA structure and protein–NA recognition for essential cellular processes, such as replication or transcription, is discussed to provide background for description of a range of biophysical chemistry methods that are applied to study a wide scope of protein–DNA and protein–RNA complexes. These techniques employ different detection principles with specific advantages and limitations and are often combined as mutually complementary approaches to provide a complete description of the interactions. Electrochemical methods have proven to be of great utility in such studies because they provide sensitive measurements and can be combined with other approaches that facilitate the protein–NA interactions. Recent applications of electrochemical methods in studies of protein–NA interactions are discussed in detail.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Czech Science Foundation (grants P206/12/G151 to M. F. and P301/11/2076 to H. P.) and by the ASCR (RVO 68081707). We gratefully acknowledge support from the BBSRC for a PhD studentship to A. M. C.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK

    Richard P. Bowater

  2. King’s College London, The James Black Centre, 125 Coldharbour Lane, London, SE5 9NU, UK

    Andrew M. Cobb

  3. Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i., Kralovopolska 135, 61265, Brno, Czech Republic

    Hana Pivonkova, Ludek Havran & Miroslav Fojta

  4. Central European Institute of Technology, Masaryk University, Kamenice 753/5, 625 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Miroslav Fojta

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  1. Richard P. Bowater
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  2. Andrew M. Cobb
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  3. Hana Pivonkova
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  4. Ludek Havran
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  5. Miroslav Fojta
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Correspondence to Richard P. Bowater or Miroslav Fojta.

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Bowater, R.P., Cobb, A.M., Pivonkova, H. et al. Biophysical and electrochemical studies of protein–nucleic acid interactions. Monatsh Chem 146, 723–739 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00706-014-1405-4

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