DNA hydration studied by neutron fiber diffraction

The development of neutron high angle fiber diffraction to investigate the location of water around the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) double-helix is described. The power of the technique is illustrated by its application to the D and A conformations of DNA using the single crystal diffractometer, D19, at the Institut Laue-Langevin, Grenoble and the time of flight diffractometer, SXD, at the Rutherford Appleton ISIS Spallation Neutron Source. These studies show the existence of bound water closely associated with the DNA. The patterns of hydration in these two DNA conformations are quite distinct and are compared to those observed in X-ray single crystal studies of two-stranded oligodeoxynucleotides. Information on the location of water around the DNA double-helix from the neutron fiber diffraction studies is combined with that on the location of alkali metal cations from complementary X-ray high angle fiber diffraction studies at the Daresbury Laboratory SRS using synchrotron radiation. These analyses emphasize the importance of viewing DNA, water and ions as a single system with specific interactions between the three components and provide a basis for understanding the effect of changes in the concentration of water and ions in inducing conformational transitions in the DNA double-helix.