It is noticed that DNA is toxic to cells in a dose-dependent manner. But I have not grasped the underlying mechanism. I guess there may be some players (proteins or others) involved in this process, but I am not sure.
And it is known that DNA toxicity hinders the ability of genetic engineering, I suggest it is of vital importance to figure out this question.
Please feel free to discuss, thank you!
Hello Mingliang Ren
Your guess may be right. Sometimes, cytotoxicity may result if a plasmid encoding a toxic protein or too much plasmid with a high expression rate is used. It also depends on the cell type.
You may also refer to the article attached below for more information.
Article Electroporation and DNA-dependent cell death in murine macrophages
Hope this helps!
Best.
What makes you claim that DNA is toxic to cells? I don't think in general this is true. There might be a specific gene or sequence for example that might be toxic, but in general it should not be toxic. Although if in very high concentrations you might observe some toxic interactions but these are primarily indirect effects due to charge etc.
If you think about it, normal cells have very high concentrations of internal DNA.
Hi, the dose makes the poison. Everything is poisonous or toxic at some point, even water or oxygen. If you talk about really a lot of DNA, the observed toxicity may come from simple mechanisms such as precipitation, random hydrophobic interactions with proteins that inhibit them at some point, and/or interruption of intercellular communication.
Figuring out a specific complex mechanism doesn't sim fit here. If there was a specific toxicity mechanism, it could be observed from small amounts of DNA.
I.e., the DNA inhibiting some enzyme, such interaction should be observed in uM to nM concentrations.
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