gamma irradiation off microbial and synthetic dna sequences in the presence of co2+

M-DNA is a complex between DNA and cobalt (II), nickel (II) or zinc (II) that forms under alkaline conditions. It has been postulated that the imino proton of guanine or thymine is replaced by the metal cation in each base-pair. The complex is thought to maintain a double-helical structure similar to B-DNA but has unusual properties. M-DNA acts as an electron conductor making it a potential candidate for future nanotechnology applications. For the Co2+ form of M-DNA, y-radiation caused the very efficient formation of interstrand crosslinks that was not observed with B-DNA and the cross links occurred in A-T & G-C base pairs.