Abstract
We describe the NMR structural characterisation of a bimolecular anti-parallel DNA quadruplex d(G3ACGTAGTG3)2 containing an autonomously stable mini-hairpin motif inserted within the diagonal loop. A folding topology is identified that is different from that observed for the analogous d(G3T4G3)2 dimer with the two structures differing in the relative orientation of the diagonal loops. This appears to reflect specific base stacking interactions at the quadruplex-duplex interface that are not present in the structure with the T4-loop sequence. A truncated version of the bimolecular quadruplex d(G2ACGTAGTG2)2, with only two core G-tetrads, is less stable and forms a heterogeneous mixture of three 2-fold symmetric quadruplexes with different loop arrangements. We demonstrate that the nature of the loop sequence, its ability to form autonomously stable structure, the relative stabilities of the hairpin loop and core quadruplex, and the ability to form favourable stacking interactions between these two motifs are important factors in controlling DNA G-quadruplex topology.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1600-1615 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Journal of Molecular Biology |
Volume | 385 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 6 2009 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- DNA hairpins
- NMR spectroscopy
- bimolecular DNA quadruplex
- structural topology
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biophysics
- Structural Biology
- Molecular Biology