Experiment and Prediction: A Productive Symbiosis in Studies on the Thermodynamics of DNA Oligomers

Recently, we reported the kinetics of hybridization of cDNA dodecamers (Carrillo-Nava, E.; Mejia-Radillo, Y.; Hinz, H.-J. Biochemistry 2008, 47, 13153-13157). In this study, we provide the thermodynamic reaction parameters of those dodecamers as well as a comparison with parameters for 24-mers designed from two identical dodecamers in tandem arrangement. The thermodynamic properties were determined by isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), differential scanning microcalorimetry (DSC), and UV melting studies. On the basis of the results from our kinetic studies, fitting algorithms of DSC and UV melting profiles employed the two-state assumption for the duplex to a single strand dissociation reaction. The formation of both 12-mer and 24-mer duplexes is strongly enthalpy driven at all temperatures. At identical temperatures, the hybridization enthalpy of the 24-mer is within error limits twice that of the 12-mer. Duplex formation is always associated with a significant negative heat capacity change, Delta C-p, which, on a mass basis, is comparable to that observed for protein folding. Only a small part of the favorable reaction enthalpy appears as a standard Gibbs free energy change due to large compensating negative entropy changes linked to duplex formation. On the basis of the results of the present studies, it appears to be absolutely essential for a proper analysis of thermodynamic parameters of oligonucleotide hybridization reactions to combine low temperature ITC measurements of binding enthalpies with DSC and UV melting studies to obtain an accurate assessment of standard Gibbs energy changes or, equivalently, hybridization constants over a broad temperature range. The experimental thermodynamic parameters were compared with theoretical estimates based on nearest-neighbor approximations employing temperature-independent enthalpies. Good agreement between experimental and predicted Delta G degrees values is observed at ambient temperatures (20-30 degrees C), as long as helix formation is associated with small molar heat capacity changes. If the experimental Delta C-p values determined by ITC are taken into account, significant deviations occur.