β-1,3-D-glucan schizophyllan/poly(dA) triple-helical complex in dilute solution

A certain length of poly(deoxyadenylic acid) (dA(X)) can form a novel complex with β-1,3-D-glucan schizophyllan (SPG) with a stoichiometric composition of one dA binding two main chain glucoses. We measured dilute solution properties for the complex with light and small-angle X-ray scattering as well as intrinsic viscosity and found that the complex behaves as a semiflexible rod without branching or cross-linking. We analyzed the data with the wormlike cylinder model, and the chain dimensions and the persistence length for the complexes were consistently determined. The chain flexibility was reduced to almost 25% upon complexation for dA/SPG and to 15% for S-dA/SPG, where S-dA denotes the phosphorothioated DNA analogue. The changes in the molar mass per unit length and the diameter indicated that the helix was elongated or stretched along the axis direction upon the complexation.