Nearest-neighbor parameters for predicting DNA duplex stability in diverse molecular crowding conditions

Significance The intracellular environment is occupied by a high concentration of various types of biomolecules that lead to a situation known as molecular crowding, which affects important biological reactions such as replication and transcription by altering the stability of nucleic acids. Because intracellular crowded conditions are heterogeneous, a general method is needed to predict the stability of nucleic acids in such conditions. Here, we predicted the stability of DNA duplexes under crowded conditions induced by a large amount of a cosolute at a physiological salt concentration using the nearest-neighbor model. We also extended the parameters for predicting DNA stability under conditions imposed by different cosolutes that mimicked a localized intracellular crowded region.