Does the metal influence non-covalent binding of complexes to DNA?

Electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry, absorption spectrophotometry and circular dichroism spectroscopy were used to investigate the binding of a series of nickel complexes with the general formula [Ni(phen)₂L]²⁺ (L = phen, dpq, dpqC and dppz) to a double stranded DNA hexadecamer. In addition, the binding of the complexes to pUC9 negatively supercoiled plasmid DNA was examined using gel electrophoresis, and their ability to inhibit DNA transcription was measured. Each of the above techniques showed that DNA binding strengthened as the size of the unique ligand L was increased. Comparison of the above results with those obtained previously, and presented here for the first time for the analogous series of ruthenium complexes [Ru(phen)₂L]²⁺, showed that changing the metal ion from nickel to ruthenium consistently resulted in significant increases in DNA binding affinity.