Effect of repeated insertions of curved sequences in DNA plasmids: a light-scattering study

The effect of the insertion of different amounts (from 0 to 6) of the curved sequence AluI in pUC18m plasmid (2686 base pairs, bp) is studied by dynamic light scattering. This sequence is a highly repeated 113 base pairs long sequence from Artemia Franciscana shrimp. A 30% compaction of the plasmids containing 2 and 6 adjacent AluI sequences compared to pUC8 plasmid (2717 bp) is observed. Furthermore the behavior of the translational diffusion coefficient D t versus the number of adjacent AluI insertion is not monotonic.