[Interaction of DNA with N-bromosuccinimide. G+C-specific reaction potentially useful for structural and functional...

Incomplete modification of DNA fragments labeled at one terminus with N-bromosuccinimide is shown to be useful for localization of G and C residues along the polynucleotide chain. After N-bromosuccinimide treatment the fragments can be split at modified residues with piperidine. The rate of the reaction of the single-stranded fragments is extremely fast and much higher than that of double-stranded DNA. The modification can be used for structure and function studies on DNA.