Uranyl salts as photochemical agents for cleavage of DNA and probing of protein‐DNA contacts

Abstract
Single-strand DNA nicks are induced by uranyl nitrate or uranyl acetate in combination with long-wavelength (λ ∼ 420 nm) ultraviolet irradiation. The nicks occur randomly with respect to the DNA sequence. Using the λ-repressor/OR1 operator DNA system it is shown that uranyl salts can be used to photofootprint protein contacts with the DNA backbone