TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hahn, Marc Benjamin
A1  - Meyer, Susann
A1  - Schröter, Maria-Astrid
A1  - Seitz, Harald
A1  - Kunte, Hans-Jörg
A1  - Solomun, Tihomir
A1  - Sturm, Heinz
T1  - Direct electron irradiation of DNA in a fully aqueous environment
BT  - Damage determination in combination with Monte Carlo simulations
JF  - Physical chemistry, chemical physics : PCCP ; a journal of European chemical societies
N2  - We report on a study in which plasmid DNA in water was irradiated with 30 keV electrons generated by a scanning electron microscope and passed through a 100 nm thick Si3N4 membrane. The corresponding Monte Carlo simulations suggest that the kinetic energy spectrum of the electrons throughout the water is dominated by low energy electrons (<100 eV). The DNA radiation damage, single-strand breaks (SSBs) and double-strand breaks (DSBs), was determined by gel electrophoresis. The median lethal dose of D-1/2 = 1.7 +/- 0.3 Gy was found to be much smaller as compared to partially or fully hydrated DNA irradiated under vacuum conditions. The ratio of the DSBs to SSBs was found to be 1 : 12 as compared to 1 : 88 found for hydrated DNA. Our method enables quantitative measurements of radiation damage to biomolecules (DNA, proteins) in solutions under varying conditions (pH, salinity, co-solutes) for an electron energy range which is difficult to probe by standard methods.
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1039/c6cp07707b
SN  - 1463-9076
SN  - 1463-9084
VL  - 19
IS  - 3
SP  - 1798
EP  - 1805
PB  - RSC Publ.
CY  - Cambridge
ER  -