UV resonance Raman scattering of nucleic acids
Grant agency: GAUK
Identification number of grant: 691412
Head of the project: Mgr. Jakub Klener
Vice-head of the project:
Prof. RNDr. Josef Štěpánek, CSc.
Grant annotation
The project is focused on determination of secondary and tertiary
structures of nucleic acids (NA) and their interactions. Considering the
requirement of measurements in natural aqueous environment, Raman
spectroscopy (RS), which is capable of acquiring basic information about
the structure and structural changes of NA and their complexes, is very
convenient for that purpose. The disadvantage of standard RS with
visible excitation is the necessity of high NA concentration and the
problems with contamination of samples by low-molecular impurities.
These difficulties can be overcome by using resonance Raman scattering
(RRS) with excitation in the long-wavelength NA absorption band. Because
of substantially higher demands on the apparatus, its adjustment and
employment of measuring schemes that protect the sample from
photodegradation, this technique is only rarely used in NA studies.
The main task of the project will be, besides building up the UV RRS
spectrometer and development of suitable procedures for handling with UV
photosensitive samples, to find out RRS markers sensitive to NA
conformation and its interaction. These findings will be applied in a
subsequent study of particular NA structural motives, important for the
transfer and expression of genetic information.
