Study on the resonance light-scattering spectrum of anionic dye xylenol orange-cetyltrimethylammonium-nucleic acids system and determination of nucleic acids at nanogram levels

The interaction of xylenol orange (XO) and nucleic acids in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTMAB) in aqueous solution has been studied by a resonance light-scattering (RLS) technique with a common spectrofluorometer. In hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) buffer (pH7.30), XO and nucleic acids react with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide to form large particles of three-component complex, which results in strong enhanced RLS signals characterized by three peaks at 295.9, 335.5 and 542 nm, Mechanistic studies showed that the enhanced RLS stems from the aggregation of XO on DNA through the bridged and synergistic effect of CTMAB. With the enhanced RLS signals at the three wavelengths, the enhanced RLS intensity is proportional to the concentration of nucleic acids in an appropriate range. The lowest limit of determination was 5.31 ng ml−1, three synthetic samples of yDNA were analyzed satisfactorily.