Low energy electrons and ultra-soft X-rays irradiation of plasmid DNA. Technical innovations.

In this paper we present in a first part the latest results of our group which are in relation with the study of DNA damages inflicted by low energy electrons (0-20 eV) in ultra-high vacuum as well as in air under atmospheric conditions. A short description of the drop-casting technique we developed to produce thin and nanometre-scaled DNA layers onto graphite sheets is given. We provide the absolute cross-section for loss of supercoiled topology of plasmid DNA complexed with 1,3-diaminopropane (Dap) in the vacuum under 10 eV electron impact and suggest a specific pathway for the dissociation of the transient negative ion formed by resonant capture of such a low energy electron (LEE) by the DNA's phosphate group when complexed to Dap. Well-gauged DNA-Dap layers with various nanometre-scaled thicknesses are used to evaluate the effective attenuation length of secondary photo-LEEs in the energy range (0–20 eV). The values of 11–16 nm for DNA kept under atmospheric conditions are in good agreement with the rare literature data available and which are stemming from computer simulations. In a second part, we describe the method we have developed in order to expose liquid samples of plasmid DNA to ultra-soft X-rays (Al Kα line at 1.5 keV) under hydroxyl radical scavenging conditions. We provide an experimentally determined percentage of indirect effects in aqueous medium kept under standard conditions of 94.7±2.1% indirect effects; in satisfactory agreement with the data published by others (i.e. 97.7%) relative to gamma irradiation of frozen solutions (Tomita et al., 1995). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]