[Melting of DNA-total histone complexes in the presence of noradrenaline]

Study is presented of the effect of noradrenaline on thermic denaturation of DNA-total histone complexes within the range of protein concentrations which corresponds to c1/c2 0-1.7 in solutions of 10(-3) M Na+ ionic strength (c1 and c2 being the weight concentrations of protein and nucleic acid, respectively). Denaturation of these systems has been found to be strongly affected by bivalent metals contained in DNA samples. Their presence accounts for the high temperature and wide melting range of DNA and diminution of the latter with an increase of the protein concentration in DNA-histone complexes. The denaturation parametres obtained for the studied systems are in fair agreement with predictions from the clip thermodynamic theory. Noradrenaline is shown to be capable of destabilizing DNA-total histon complexes. This is due to the inactivation of bivalent metals bound with DNA by noradrenaline. It is also suggested that noradrenaline does not weaken the histone binding with a nucleic acid.