Nucleic Acids Research, Vol 25, Issue 10 1875-1882, Copyright © 1997 by Oxford University Press
J Marfurt, SP Parel and CJ Leumann
The nucleoside analogs 7-(2'-deoxy-alpha-D-ribofuranosyl)hypoxanthine
(alpha7H,1), 7-(2'-deoxy-beta-D-ribofuranosyl)hypoxanthine (beta7H,2) and
7-7-(2'-O-methyl-beta-D- ribofuranosyl)hypoxanthine (beta7HOMe,3) were
prepared and incorporated into triplex forming oligodeoxynucleotides,
designed to bind to DNA in the parallel (pyrimidine.purine-pyrimidine)
motif. By DNase I footprinting techniques and UV-melting curve analysis it
was found that, at pH 7. 0, the 15mer oligonucleotides
d(TTTTTMeCTXTMeCTMeCTMeCT) (MeC = 5-methyl- deoxycytidine, X
=beta7H,beta7HOMe) bind to a DNA target duplex forming a H.G-C base triple
with equal to slightly increased (10-fold) stability compared to a control
oligodeoxynucleotide in which the hypoxanthine residue is replaced by MeC.
Remarkably, triple-helix formation is specific to G-C base pairs and up to
40 microM third strand concentration, no stable triplex exhibiting H.A-T,
H.T-A or H.C- G base arrangements could be found (target duplex
concentration approximately 0.1 nM). Multiply substituted sequences
containing beta7H residues either in an isolated
[d(TTTTTbeta7HTbeta7HTbeta7HTbeta7HTbeta7HT)] or in a contiguous
[d(TTTbeta7Hbeta7Hbeta7Hbeta7HTTTTbeta7HTTT)] manner still form triplexes
with their targets of comparable stability as the control (MeC-containing)
sequences at pH 7.0 and high salt or spermine containing buffers. General
considerations lead to a structural model in which the recognition of the
G-C base pair by hypoxanthine takes place via only one H-bond of the N-H of
hypoxanthine to N7 of guanine. This model is supported by a molecular
dynamics simulation. A general comparison of the triplex forming properties
of oligonucleotides containing beta7H with those containing MeC or
N7-2'-deoxyguanosine (N7G) reveals that monodentate recognition in the
former case can energetically compete with bidentate recognition in the
latter two cases.
ARTICLES
Strong, specific, monodentate G-C base pair recognition by N7-inosine derivatives in the pyrimidine.purine-pyrimidine triple-helical binding motif
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Bern, Freiestrasse 3, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland.
![]()
CiteULike
Connotea
Del.icio.us What's this?