Induced optical activity of acridine orange bound to poly‐S‐carboxymethyl‐L‐cysteine

Abstract

AbstractThe absorption and rotatory properties of acridine orange‐poly‐S‐carboxymethyl‐L‐cysteine system in water and in 0.2 M NaCl have been measured at different pH and polymer‐to‐dye mixing ratios. The absorption spectra indicate that the dyes are bound to the polymer in dimeric or highly aggregated forms. At neutral pH where the polymer is randomly coiled, no optical activity is induced on the absorption bands of bound acridine orange. At acid pH where the polymer has the β‐conformation, a pair of positive and negative circular dichroic bands occur at each of the absorption bands, centered around 458 and 261 mμ. The signs of those bands are opposite to those found for α‐helical poly‐L‐glutamic acid. A model for the binding of dye to the β‐form polymer is presented, in which dimeric dyes are attached to ionized carboxyl groups and slack one another to form linear arrays on both sides of an extended polypeptide chain. The observed circular dichroism spectra can be explained by the Tinoco's exciton mechanism, based on this model. Low molecular weight poly‐S‐carboxymethyl‐L‐cysteine induces quite a different circular dichroism on bound acridine orange.