Stem-loop structures of the repetitive DNA sequences located at human centromeres
- Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
- California Univ., Davis, CA (United States). Dept. of Biological Chemistry
The presence of the highly conserved repetitive DNA sequences in the human centromeres argues for a special role of these sequences in their biological functions - most likely achieved by the formation of unusual structures. This prompted us to carry out quantitative one- and two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (lD/2D NMR) spectroscopy to determine the structural properties of the human centromeric repeats, d(AATGG){sub n.d}(CCATT){sub n}. The studies on centromeric DNAs reveal that the complementary sequence, d(AATGG){sub n.d}(CCATT){sub n}, adopts the usual Watson-Crick B-DNA duplex and the pyrimidine-rich d(CCATT){sub n} strand is essentially a random coil. However, the purine-rich d(AATGG){sub n} strand is shown to adopt unusual stem-loop structures for repeat lengths, n=2,3,4, and 6. In addition to normal Watson-Crick A{center_dot}T pairs, the stem-loop structures are stabilized by mismatch A{center_dot}G and G{center_dot}G pairs in the stem and G-G-A stacking in the loop. Stem-loop structures of d(AATGG)n are independently verified by gel electrophoresis and nuclease digestion studies. Thermal melting studies show that the DNA repeats, d(AATGG){sub n}, are as stable as the corresponding Watson-Crick duplex d(AATGG){sub n.d}(CCATT){sub n}. Therefore, the sequence d(AATGG){sub n} can, indeed, nucleate a stem-loop structure at little free-energy cost and if, during mitosis, they are located on the chromosome surface they can provide specific recognition sites for kinetochore function.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 10102555
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-93-3073; CONF-9306237-2; ON: DE93040187
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 8. conversation in the discipline biomolecular stereodynamics,Albany, NY (United States),Jun 1993; Other Information: PBD: [1993]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Monovalent cation induced structural transitions in telomeric DNAs: G-DNA folding intermediates
A DNA G-quadruplex/i-motif hybrid