Hydrogen Ion Titration Curve of a Polynucleotide Capable of Undergoing a Helix-Coil Transition

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Abstract
A theory is developed for the hydrogen ion titration curve of doubly stranded helical polynucleotides for which the two strands are nonidentical and very long. It is shown that for pronounced sharpening to occur the binding (or dissociation) of a proton must favor the rupture of the internucleotide hydrogen bonding and also the addition to a sequence of ruptured bonds must be energetically favored over the formation of a new sequence.