Self-cleavage of DNA in the presence of metal ions.

DNA is well known to be aggregated by metal ions including Mn ions, however, analysis of the aggregation process from a chemical aspect, which means identification of the product yielded during the process, has not been performed yet. On determination of what kinds of degraded materials were in the supernatant obtained on centrifugation of a DNA mixture aggregated under the conditions of 10 mM Mn ions ([Mn]/[P]=46.3) at 70 degrees C for 1 h, dAMP, dCMP, dGMP, and TMP produced through self-cleavage of DNA were found in the water-soluble part. These mononucleotides were purified by HPLC using TSKgel ODS-80Ts, and identified by LC-TOF/MS. The self-cleavage was effectively occurred under the conditions of more than 5 mM Mn ions, a reaction temperature of more than 70 degrees C, a reaction time of more than 30 min, and the use of DNA with a molecular weight of more than 140 bp. The self-cleavage was affected by the molecular size of the DNA.