Nucleic Acids Research, Vol 25, Issue 23 4786-4791, Copyright © 1997 by Oxford University Press
H Shindo, N Matsumoto and M Shimizu
We report here kinetic and thermodynamic studies on differential
isomerization of intramolecular Pyr*Pur.Pyr triplexes in supercoiled
plasmids. Two structural isomers of the triplex exist: one with the 3'-
half of the Pyr strand as the third strand (H-y3 form) and the other with
the 5'-half as the third strand (H-y5 form). The relative populations of
the two triplex isomers was determined using the chemical probe with
diethyl pryrocarbonate as a function of incubation time. The results
demonstrated that triplexes were formed rapidly after a pH change from pH
8.0 to 5.0 and that the initial population of the two isomers exponentially
changed with incubation time to reach true thermodynamic equilibrium with a
time constant of 0.6-10 h, depending on temperature and the presence of
Mg2+. The results clearly demonstrated that interconversion occurs between
the two isomers and that the presence of Mg2+ generally retarded the
interconversion rates. Kinetic and thermodynamic analyses of the relative
populations of the two isomers revealed that the apparent energy barrier
for transition from duplex to the H-y3 form is higher than that to the H-y5
form, but H-y3 is more stable in enthalpy terms than H-y5. Therefore, H-y3
is kinetically inferior but thermodynamically favored at higher supercoil
levels in plasmids. The presence of Mg2+ resulted in both a kinetic and a
thermodynamic preference for H-y5 formation, relative to the H-y3 form.
ARTICLES
Dynamics in the isomerization of intramolecular DNA triplexes in supercoiled plasmids
School of Pharmacy, Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Science, 1432- 1 Horinouchi, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-03, Japan. shindo@ps.toyaku.ac.jp
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