Magnesium is an alkaline earth metal and its electron configuration is 2,8,2. All other alkaline earth metal such as calcium(2,8,8,2), strontium(2,8,18,2), barium(2,8,18,18,2) has a similar electron configuration. Especially electron configuration of calcium is very similar to magnesium. So If CaCl2 or any alkaline earth metal is used instead of MgCl2, will it work?
Maggnesium is required to achieve a proper geometry of DNA polymerase necessary for an in-line nucleophilic attack of O3′ on the αP of the incoming nucleotide and its size is very critical, calcium, strontium and barium would not function like magnesium does.
Maggnesium is required to achieve a proper geometry of DNA polymerase necessary for an in-line nucleophilic attack of O3′ on the αP of the incoming nucleotide and its size is very critical, calcium, strontium and barium would not function like magnesium does.
Huanting is correct. The larger ions simply won't fit in the binding site on the enzyme.
A. They will not bind, as already pointed out. The enzyme binding site for Mg2+ has a very specific geometry, including the size.
B: The solubility of the other salts also differs, and depending on the other ions in solution - for example buffer components, you may get precipitates of e.g. Calcium carbonate or others, too.
As we move from top to bottom in a periodic table, although the outermost orbit having same electron numbers, the size of atoms increases which most effect the enzymatic activity of any enzymatic reaction. In this case also, the size of Mg2+ is smaller than the down atoms such as Ca< Sr
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