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Differential scanning microcalorimetry (DSC), UV absorption and circular dichroism (CD) have been used to study structure and stability of linear (lin), open circular (oc), supercoiled (cd) and relaxed circular duplex (rd) DNA and calf thymus (CT) DNA. Investigations were made in low salt buffer and in the presence of 7.2 M NaClO4. The chaotropic action of perchlorate promotes a reduction of the overall stability of DNA, which permits a direct determination of the transition enthalpies of all four DNA configurations. The stabilities against thermal denaturation have been found to increase in the series lin approximately oc less than cd less than rd. These relative stabilities can be rationalized on the basis of the linkage between supercoiling and secondary structural changes in topologically constrained duplex DNA. On the basis of these studies, a model of the melting process could be suggested that is consistent with the energetic and spectroscopic data.

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