Contribution of light scattering to the circular dichroism of deoxyribonucleic acid films, deoxyribonucleic acid-polylysine complexes, and deoxyribonucleic acid particles in ethanolic buffers.

The contribution of scattering to the circular dichroism (CD) of DNA films with twisted structures, DNA-polylysine complexes, and condensed DNA aggregates in ethanolic buffers of defined salt concentrations has been studied by the use of novel measuring techniques. These techniques include fluorscat cuvettes, fluorescence-detected circular dichroism (FDCD) methods, backscattering capturing devices, and beam-mounted goniometer detectors. The result of the experimental measurement is that DNA films can be made which have very large ellipticities or CD at sharp specific wavelengths. The sign of these ellipticities is related to the handedness of the twists, with a right-handed twist producing large positive rotations and a left-handed one producing negative rotations. The film show nodal angles at which the interaction with light is minimal. The scattering patterns of both films, DNA-polylysine particles and DNA-EtOH condensates, show that the main interaction is light scattering produced by a resonance phenomenon similar to that produced in cholesteric liquid crystals and twisted-nematic liquid crystals. From this result we propose that the so-called psi-type CD spectrum is a manifestation of a side-by-side packing of DNA molecules with a long-range twisting order whose helical parameters match the helical parameter of circularly polarized light at specific resonance or critical wavelengths. Application of the Bragg law for cholesteric liquid crystals gives the periodicity of the long-range ordered structures.