The Role of Correlation and Solvation in Ion Interactions with B-DNA

The ionic atmospheres around nucleic acids play important roles in biological function. Large-scale explicit solvent simulations coupled to experimental assays such as anomalous small-angle x-ray scattering can provide important insights into the structure and energetics of such atmospheres but are time- and resource intensive. In this article, we use classical density functional theory to explore the balance among ion-DNA, ion-water, and ion-ion interactions in ionic atmospheres of RbCl, SrCl2, and CoHexCl3 (cobalt hexamine chloride) around a B-form DNA molecule. The accuracy of the classical density functional theory calculations was assessed by comparison between simulated and experimental anomalous small-angle x-ray scattering curves, demonstrating that an accurate model should take into account ion-ion correlation and ion hydration forces, DNA topology, and the discrete distribution of charges on the DNA backbone. As expected, these calculations revealed significant differences among monovalent, divalent, and trivalent cation distributions around DNA. Approximately half of the DNA-bound Rb(+) ions penetrate into the minor groove of the DNA and half adsorb on the DNA backbone. The fraction of cations in the minor groove decreases for the larger Sr(2+) ions and becomes zero for CoHex(3+) ions, which all adsorb on the DNA backbone. The distribution of CoHex(3+) ions is mainly determined by Coulomb and steric interactions, while ion-correlation forces play a central role in the monovalent Rb(+) distribution and a combination of ion-correlation and hydration forces affect the Sr(2+) distribution around DNA. This does not imply that correlations in CoHex solutions are weaker or stronger than for other ions. Steric inaccessibility of the grooves to large CoHex ions leads to their binding at the DNA surface. In this binding mode, first-order electrostatic interactions (Coulomb) dominate the overall binding energy as evidenced by low sensitivity of ionic distribution to the presence or absence of second-order electrostatic correlation interactions.