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Covalent Incorporation of Selenium into Oligonucleotides for X-ray Crystal Structure Determination via MAD: Proof of Principle

Journal Article · · Biochimie
OSTI ID:1008808

Selenium was incorporated into an oligodeoxynucleotide in the form of 2'-methylseleno-uridine (U{sub Se}). The X-ray crystal structure of the duplex d(GCGTA)U{sub Se}d(ACGC){sub 2} was determined by the multiwavelength anomalous dispersion (MAD) technique and refined to a resolution of 1.3 {angstrom}, demonstrating that selenium can selectively substitute oxygen in DNA and that the resulting compounds are chemically stable. Since derivatization at the 2'-{alpha}-position with selenium does not affect the preference of the sugar for the C3'-endo conformation, this strategy is suitable for incorporating selenium into RNA. The availability of selenium-containing nucleic acids for crystallographic phasing offers an attractive alternative to the commonly used halogenated pyrimidines.

Research Organization:
Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (US)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
OSTI ID:
1008808
Journal Information:
Biochimie, Journal Name: Biochimie Journal Issue: 2002 Vol. 84
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
ENGLISH

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