Ion Complexation Explains Orders of Magnitude Changes in the Equilibrium Constant of Biochemical Reactions in Buffers Crowded by Nonionic Compounds

[Image: see text] The equilibrium constant (K) of biochemical complex formation in aqueous buffers with high concentration (>20 wt %) of nonionic compounds can vary by orders of magnitude in comparison with the K in a pure buffer. The precise molecular mechanisms of these profound changes are not known. Herein, we show up to a 1000-fold decrease of the K value of DNA hybridization (at nM concentration) in standard molecular crowder systems such as PEG, dextrans, Ficoll, and glycerol. The effect responsible for the decrease of K is the complexation of positively charged ions from a buffer by nonionic polymers/small molecules. We determined the average equilibrium constant for the complexation of ions per monomer (∼0.49 M(–1)). We retrieve K’s original value for a pure buffer if we properly increase the ionic strength of the buffer crowded by the polymers, compensating for the loss of complexed ions.