Electron microscopic visualization of N-acetoxy-N-2-acetylaminofluorene binding sites in ColE1 DNA by means of specific antibodies.

ColE1 DNA has been allowed to react in vitro with N-acetoxy-N-2-[14C]acetylaminofluorene in the range of 0-15 N-2-[14C]acetylaminofluorene residues bound per molecule of DNA, at the C8 of guanine residues. Purified rabbit antibodies to both N-2-(guanosine-8-yl)-acetylaminofluorene and native DNA that had reacted with N-acetoxy-N-2-acetylaminofluorene were shown by electron microscopy to recognize specifically the acetylaminofluorene-modified ColE1 DNA. The antibodies bound to DNA were visualized either per se or after reaction with goat anti-rabbit immunoglobulins coupled with ferritin. There was a linear relationship between the average number of antibodies bound per DNA molecule and the number of N-2-(deoxyguanosine-8yl)-acetylaminofluorene residues per DNA molecule. The slope of this straight line was equal to 0.4. Due to the bivalence of the immunoglobulins one would expect a value of 0.5; we actually observed an important fraction of the bound antibodies crosslinking two parts of the same (or of another) DNA molecule.