scholarly journals Mismodeled purines: implicit alternates and hidden Hoogsteens

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (10) ◽  
pp. 852-859 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley J. Hintze ◽  
Jane S. Richardson ◽  
David C. Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Crystal Structures ◽  
Electron Density ◽  
Opposite Direction ◽  
Dna Sequences ◽  
Occurrence Rate ◽  
Difference Electron Density ◽  
Base Pairs ◽  
Manual Inspection ◽  
Density Peaks

Hoogsteen base pairs are seen in DNA crystal structures, but only rarely. This study tests whether Hoogsteens or othersynpurines are either under-modeled or over-modeled, which are known problems for rare conformations. Candidate purines needing asyn/anti180° flip were identified by diagnostic patterns of difference electron-density peaks. Manual inspection narrowed 105 flip candidates to 20 convincing cases, all at ≤2.7 Å resolution. Rebuilding and refinement confirmed that 14 of these were authentic purine flips. Seven examples are modeled as Watson–Crick base pairs but should be Hoogsteens (commonest at duplex termini), and three had the opposite issue.Syn/antiflips were also needed for some single-stranded purines. Five of the 20 convincing cases arose from an unmodeled alternate duplex running in the opposite direction. These are in semi-palindromic DNA sequences bound by a homodimeric protein and show flipped-purine-like difference peaks at residues where the palindrome is imperfect. This study documents types of incorrect modeling which are worth avoiding. However, the primary conclusions are that such mistakes are infrequent, the bias towards fittingantipurines is very slight, and the occurrence rate of Hoogsteen base pairs in DNA crystal structures remains unchanged from earlier estimates at ∼0.3%.

Developing a Genetic System in Deinococcus radiodurans for Analyzing Mutations

Genetics ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 166 (2) ◽  
pp. 661-668
Author(s):  
Mandy Kim ◽  
Erika Wolff ◽  
Tiffany Huang ◽  
Lilit Garibyan ◽  
Ashlee M Earl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dna Sequences ◽  
Deinococcus Radiodurans ◽  
Genetic System ◽  
Base Change ◽  
Base Substitution ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Base Pairs ◽  
E Coli ◽  
Radiation Induced ◽  
Induced Mutagenesis

Abstract We have applied a genetic system for analyzing mutations in Escherichia coli to Deinococcus radiodurans, an extremeophile with an astonishingly high resistance to UV- and ionizing-radiation-induced mutagenesis. Taking advantage of the conservation of the β-subunit of RNA polymerase among most prokaryotes, we derived again in D. radiodurans the rpoB/Rif r system that we developed in E. coli to monitor base substitutions, defining 33 base change substitutions at 22 different base pairs. We sequenced >250 mutations leading to Rif r in D. radiodurans derived spontaneously in wild-type and uvrD (mismatch-repair-deficient) backgrounds and after treatment with N-methyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (NTG) and 5-azacytidine (5AZ). The specificities of NTG and 5AZ in D. radiodurans are the same as those found for E. coli and other organisms. There are prominent base substitution hotspots in rpoB in both D. radiodurans and E. coli. In several cases these are at different points in each organism, even though the DNA sequences surrounding the hotspots and their corresponding sites are very similar in both D. radiodurans and E. coli. In one case the hotspots occur at the same site in both organisms.

scholarly journals THE DNA OF CAENORHABDITIS ELEGANS

Genetics ◽  
1974 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-104
Author(s):  
J E Sulston ◽  
S Brenner
Keyword(s):  
Caenorhabditis Elegans ◽  
Chemical Analysis ◽  
Dna Sequences ◽  
Base Composition ◽  
Nematode Caenorhabditis Elegans ◽  
5S Rna ◽  
Base Pairs ◽  
Small Component ◽  
E Coli ◽  
The Mean

ABSTRACT Chemical analysis and a study of renaturation kinetics show that the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, has a haploid DNA content of 8 x IO7 base pairs (20 times the genome of E. coli). Eighty-three percent of the DNA sequences are unique. The mean base composition is 36% GC; a small component, containing the rRNA cistrons, has a base composition of 51% GC. The haploid genome contains about 300 genes for 4s RNA, 110 for 5s RNA, and 55 for (18 + 28)S RNA.

Crystal structures of the chromosomal proteins Sso7d/Sac7d bound to DNA containing T-G mismatched base-pairs

2000 ◽  
Vol 303 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaoyu Su ◽  
Yi-Gui Gao ◽  
Howard Robinson ◽  
Yen-Chywan Liaw ◽  
Stephen P Edmondson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Crystal Structures ◽  
Base Pairs ◽  
Chromosomal Proteins

Three-centre C—H...O hydrogen bonds in the DNA minor groove: analysis of oligonucleotide crystal structures

1999 ◽  
Vol 55 (12) ◽  
pp. 2005-2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anirban Ghosh ◽  
Manju Bansal
Keyword(s):  
Hydrogen Bonds ◽  
Crystal Structures ◽  
Base Pair ◽  
Minor Groove ◽  
Local Geometry ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Base Pairs ◽  
Dna Minor Groove ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Using Data

AA·TT and GA·TC dinucleotide steps in B-DNA-type oligomeric crystal structures and in protein-bound DNA fragments (solved using data with resolution <2.6 Å) show very small variations in their local dinucleotide geometries. A detailed analysis of these crystal structures reveals that in AA·TT and GA·TC steps the electropositive C2—H2 group of adenine is in very close proximity to the keto O atoms of both the pyrimidine bases in the antiparallel strand of the duplex structure, suggesting the possibility of intra-base pair as well as cross-strand inter-base pair C—H...O hydrogen bonds in the DNA minor groove. The C2—H2...O2 hydrogen bonds in the A·T base pairs could be a natural consequence of Watson–Crick pairing. However, the cross-strand interactions between the bases at the 3′-end of the AA·TT and GA·TC steps obviously arise owing to specific local geometry of these steps, since a majority of the H2...O2 distances in both data sets are considerably shorter than their values in the uniform fibre model (3.3 Å) and many are even smaller than the sum of the van der Waals radii. The analysis suggests that in addition to already documented features such as the large propeller twist of A·T base pairs and the hydration of the minor groove, these C2—H2...O2 cross-strand interactions may also play a role in the narrowing of the minor groove in A-tract regions of DNA and help explain the high structural rigidity and stability observed for poly(dA)·poly(dT).

On the transferability of electron density in binary vanadium borides VB, V3B4 and VB2

2015 ◽  
Vol 71 (6) ◽  
pp. 777-787 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bürgehan Terlan ◽  
Lev Akselrud ◽  
Alexey I. Baranov ◽  
Horst Borrmann ◽  
Yuri Grin
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Crystal Structures ◽  
Electron Density ◽  
Critical Points ◽  
Atoms In Molecules ◽  
Model Systems ◽  
Suitable Model ◽  
Interatomic Distances ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
A Charge

Binary vanadium borides are suitable model systems for a systematic analysis of the transferability concept in intermetallic compounds due to chemical intergrowth in their crystal structures. In order to underline this structural relationship, topological properties of the electron density in VB, V3B4 and VB2 reconstructed from high-resolution single-crystal X-ray diffraction data as well as derived from quantum chemical calculations, are analysed in terms of Bader's Quantum Theory of Atoms in Molecules [Bader (1990). Atoms in Molecules: A Quantum Theory, 1st ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press]. The compounds VB, V3B4 and VB2 are characterized by a charge transfer from the metal to boron together with two predominant atomic interactions, the shared covalent B—B interactions and the polar covalent B—M interactions. The resembling features of the crystal structures are well reflected by the respective B—B interatomic distances as well as by ρ(r) values at the B—B bond critical points. The latter decrease with an increase in the corresponding interatomic distances. The B—B bonds show transferable electron density properties at bond critical points depending on the respective bond distances.

scholarly journals Theoretical modelling of epigenetically modified DNA sequences

F1000Research ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Teresa Pires Carvalho ◽  
Maria Leonor Gouveia ◽  
Charan Raju Kanna ◽  
Sebastian K. T. S. Wärmländer ◽  
Jamie Platts ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Mechanics ◽  
Dna Sequences ◽  
Base Pair ◽  
Density Functional ◽  
Epigenetic Modifications ◽  
Theoretical Modelling ◽  
Sugar Phosphate ◽  
Base Pairs ◽  
Phosphate Backbone ◽  
Modified Dna

We report herein a set of calculations designed to examine the effects of epigenetic modifications on the structure of DNA. The incorporation of methyl, hydroxymethyl, formyl and carboxy substituents at the 5-position of cytosine is shown to hardly affect the geometry of CG base pairs, but to result in rather larger changes to hydrogen-bond and stacking binding energies, as predicted by dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT) methods. The same modifications within double-stranded GCG and ACA trimers exhibit rather larger structural effects, when including the sugar-phosphate backbone as well as sodium counterions and implicit aqueous solvation. In particular, changes are observed in the buckle and propeller angles within base pairs and the slide and roll values of base pair steps, but these leave the overall helical shape of DNA essentially intact. The structures so obtained are useful as a benchmark of faster methods, including molecular mechanics (MM) and hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) methods. We show that previously developed MM parameters satisfactorily reproduce the trimer structures, as do QM/MM calculations which treat bases with dispersion-corrected DFT and the sugar-phosphate backbone with AMBER. The latter are improved by inclusion of all six bases in the QM region, since a truncated model including only the central CG base pair in the QM region is considerably further from the DFT structure. This QM/MM method is then applied to a set of double-stranded DNA heptamers derived from a recent X-ray crystallographic study, whose size puts a DFT study beyond our current computational resources. These data show that still larger structural changes are observed than in base pairs or trimers, leading us to conclude that it is important to model epigenetic modifications within realistic molecular contexts.

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