An Electron Spin Resonance Study of DNA Dynamics Using the Slowly Relaxing Local Structure Model

A systematic analysis is presented of the ESR spectra from DNA oligomers of a range of sizes, including a polymer, spin-labeled with nitroxide moieties attached by different tethers. The complexity of the DNA dynamics is dealt with by the use of the general slowly relaxing local structure (SRLS) model, wherein the nitroxide moiety is reorienting in a restricted local environment, which itself is relaxing on a longer time scale. The slower motion describes the global tumbling of the DNA lattice, and the faster motion, the internal dynamics. In the present analysis, the correlation times for the axially symmetric global tumbling were those obtained from hydrodynamic theory, while the correlation times for the internal dynamics and the order parameter, which directly measures its restricted range of motion, were determined by nonlinear least-squares fits to the spectra. The principal result is the observation and characterization of two types of spectra from these labeled DNA systems. These two spectra repre...