Robust silver-mediated imidazolo-dC base pairs in metal DNA: dinuclear silver bridges with exceptional stability in double helices with parallel and antiparallel strand orientation

2015 ◽  
Vol 51 (97) ◽  
pp. 17301-17304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunit Kumar Jana ◽  
Xiurong Guo ◽  
Hui Mei ◽  
Frank Seela

The silver-mediated imidazolo-dC base pair decorated with a furan residue forms exceptionally stable dinuclear silver bridges in DNA double helices with parallel and antiparallel chain orientation.

2005 ◽  
Vol 58 (12) ◽  
pp. 851 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Hendry ◽  
Maxine J. McCall ◽  
Trevor J. Lockett

The cleavage rates of RNA substrates by trans-acting, hammerhead ribozymes are controlled by interactions between helices I and II. The interactions are affected by the relative lengths of these two double helices and by unpaired nucleotides protruding beyond helix I, either in the substrate or the ribozyme strand. Maximum cleavage rates are observed for ribozyme–substrate complexes with three or more base pairs in helix II and six or less base pairs in helix I. However, for these helix combinations, rates fall sharply with unpaired nucleotides at the end of helix I. Cleavage rates by ribozymes with one or two base pairs in helix II increase as helix I is lengthened, and are unaffected by unpaired nucleotides on the end. Since miniribozymes, with one base pair in helix II, efficiently cleave long RNA transcripts under physiological conditions, they represent the optimal design for the simple hammerheads for application in vivo.


Symmetry ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 737
Author(s):  
Udo Heinemann ◽  
Yvette Roske

In nature and in the test tube, nucleic acids occur in many different forms. Apart from single-stranded, coiled molecules, DNA and RNA prefer to form helical arrangements, in which the bases are stacked to shield their hydrophobic surfaces and expose their polar edges. Focusing on double helices, we describe the crucial role played by symmetry in shaping DNA and RNA structure. The base pairs in nucleic-acid double helices display rotational pseudo-symmetry. In the Watson–Crick base pairs found in naturally occurring DNA and RNA duplexes, the symmetry axis lies in the base-pair plane, giving rise to two different helical grooves. In contrast, anti-Watson–Crick base pairs have a dyad axis perpendicular to the base-pair plane and identical grooves. In combination with the base-pair symmetry, the syn/anti conformation of paired nucleotides determines the parallel or antiparallel strand orientation of double helices. DNA and RNA duplexes in nature are exclusively antiparallel. Watson–Crick base-paired DNA or RNA helices display either right-handed or left-handed helical (pseudo-) symmetry. Genomic DNA is usually in the right-handed B-form, and RNA double helices adopt the right-handed A-conformation. Finally, there is a higher level of helical symmetry in superhelical DNA in which B-form double strands are intertwined in a right- or left-handed sense.


2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (21) ◽  
pp. 4927-4942 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunit K. Jana ◽  
Peter Leonard ◽  
Sachin A. Ingale ◽  
Frank Seela

The impact of 2′-O-alkyl residues on the stability of iCd–dG and iCd–iGd base pairs was studied in DNA with parallel and antiparallel chain orientation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 2139-2144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Hensel ◽  
Nicole Megger ◽  
Kristina Schweizer ◽  
Jens Müller

The imidazole–Ag(I)–imidazole base pair is one of the best-investigated artificial metal-mediated base pairs. We show here that its stability can be further improved by formally replacing the imidazole moiety by a 2-methylimidazole or 4-methylimidazole moiety. A comparison of the thermal stability of several double helices shows that the addition of one equivalent of Ag(I) leads to a 50% larger increase in the melting temperature when a DNA duplex with methylated imidazole nucleosides is applied. This significant effect can likely be attributed to a better steric shielding of the metal ion within the metal-mediated base pair.


1999 ◽  
Vol 55 (8) ◽  
pp. 1405-1413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uwe Mueller ◽  
Yves A. Muller ◽  
Regine Herbst-Irmer ◽  
Mathias Sprinzl ◽  
Udo Heinemann

An RNA helix with seven base pairs which was derived from the acceptor stem of Escherichia coli tRNAAla, rGGGGCUA·rUAGCUCC (ALAwt), as well as a variant, rGGGGCUA·rUAGCCCC (ALAC70), in which the single G·U wobble base pair of ALAwt was replaced by G·C, crystallize in space group C2. Both non-isomorphic crystal forms display a complex packing pattern, which can be described alternatively as disorder or pseudo-merohedral twinning. The structure of ALAwt was determined by SIRAS phasing using an isomorphous iodine derivative, rGGGGCi5UA·rUAGCUCC (ALAI). All three RNA structures were subsequently subjected to twin refinement in space group P1, using anisotropic thermal displacement parameters at resolutions of 1.16, 1.23 and 1.4 Å for ALAwt, ALAI and ALAC70, respectively. Alternatively, the structure of ALAwt was refined in space group C2 assuming twofold disorder of the molecular orientation. The refined structures are of reasonable quality according to all available indicators. There are no systematic differences between the molecular models resulting from twin refinement and disorder refinement.


1991 ◽  
Vol 66 (04) ◽  
pp. 500-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
H Peretz ◽  
U Seligsohn ◽  
E Zwang ◽  
B S Coller ◽  
P J Newman

SummarySevere Glanzmann's thrombasthenia is relatively frequent in Iraqi-Jews and Arabs residing in Israel. We have recently described the mutations responsible for the disease in Iraqi-Jews – an 11 base pair deletion in exon 12 of the glycoprotein IIIa gene, and in Arabs – a 13 base pair deletion at the AG acceptor splice site of exon 4 on the glycoprotein IIb gene. In this communication we show that the Iraqi-Jewish mutation can be identified directly by polymerase chain reaction and gel electrophoresis. With specially designed oligonucleotide primers encompassing the mutation site, an 80 base pair segment amplified in healthy controls was clearly distinguished from the 69 base pair segment produced in patients. Patients from 11 unrelated Iraqi-Jewish families had the same mutation. The Arab mutation was identified by first amplifying a DNA segment consisting of 312 base pairs in controls and of 299 base pairs in patients, and then digestion by a restriction enzyme Stu-1, which recognizes a site that is absent in the mutant gene. In controls the 312 bp segment was digested into 235 and 77 bp fragments, while in patients there was no change in the size of the amplified 299 bp segment. The mutation was found in patients from 3 out of 5 unrelated Arab families. Both Iraqi-Jewish and Arab mutations were detectable in DNA extracted from blood and urine samples. The described simple methods of identifying the mutations should be useful for detection of the numerous potential carriers among the affected kindreds and for prenatal diagnosis using DNA extracted from chorionic villi samples.


1986 ◽  
Vol 6 (10) ◽  
pp. 3401-3409
Author(s):  
D K Bishop ◽  
R D Kolodner

Purified heteroduplex plasmid DNAs containing 8- or 12-base-pair insertion mismatches or AC or CT substitution mismatches were used to transform Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Two insertion mismatches, separated by 943 base pairs, were repaired independently of each other at least 55% of the time. This suggested that repair tracts were frequently shorter than 1 kilobase. The two insertion mismatches were repaired with different efficiencies. Comparison of the repair efficiency of one mismatched site with or without an adjacent mismatch suggests that mismatches promote their own repair and can influence the repair of neighboring mismatches. When two different plasmids containing single-insertion mismatches were transformed into S. cerevisiae cells, a slight preference towards insertion was detected among repair products of one of the two plasmids, while no repair preference was detected among transformants with the second plasmid.


2006 ◽  
Vol 188 (4) ◽  
pp. 1411-1418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guangnan Chen ◽  
Amrita Kumar ◽  
Travis H. Wyman ◽  
Charles P. Moran

ABSTRACT At the onset of endospore formation in Bacillus subtilis the DNA-binding protein Spo0A directly activates transcription from promoters of about 40 genes. One of these promoters, Pskf, controls expression of an operon encoding a killing factor that acts on sibling cells. AbrB-mediated repression of Pskf provides one level of security ensuring that this promoter is not activated prematurely. However, Spo0A also appears to activate the promoter directly, since Spo0A is required for Pskf activity in a ΔabrB strain. Here we investigate the mechanism of Pskf activation. DNase I footprinting was used to determine the locations at which Spo0A bound to the promoter, and mutations in these sites were found to significantly reduce promoter activity. The sequence near the −10 region of the promoter was found to be similar to those of extended −10 region promoters, which contain a TRTGn motif. Mutational analysis showed that this extended −10 region, as well as other base pairs in the −10 region, is required for Spo0A-dependent activation of the promoter. We found that a substitution of the consensus base pair for the nonconsensus base pair at position −9 of Pskf produced a promoter that was active constitutively in both ΔabrB and Δspo0A ΔabrB strains. Therefore, the base pair at position −9 of Pskf makes its activity dependent on Spo0A binding, and the extended −10 region motif of the promoter contributes to its high level of activity.


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