Fluorescence Spectral Study of Interaction of Water-soluble Metal Complexes of Schiff-base and DNA

The fluorescence spectral characteristics and the interaction of several water-soluble metal complexes of Schiff-base with DNA are described. Among the complexes tested, Mn-Schiff-base bound to DNA showed a marked decrease in the fluorescence intensity with a blue shift of the excitation and emission peaks. Some hypochromism in the UV absorption spectra was also observed. KI quenching and competitive binding to DNA between Mn-Schiff-base and ethidium bromide (EB) were studied in connection with other experimental observations to show that the interactive model between Mn-Schiff-base and DNA is an intercalative one. The pH and salt effect on the fluorescence properties was also investigated. The linear relationship between F/F0 and the concentration of calf thymus DNA covers 3.0 × 10–6–2 × 10–4 mol L–1, which can be utilized for determining traces of calf thymus DNA with a detection limit of 8.0 × 10–7 mol L–1 in base pairs.