Crystal structure of d(GCGAAAGCT) containing a parallel-stranded duplex with homo base pairs and an anti-parallel duplex with Watson–Crick base pairs

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Oxford University Press

RESUMO

A DNA fragment d(GCGAAAGCT), known to adopt a stable mini-hairpin structure in solution, has been crystallized in the space group I4122 with the unit-cell dimensions a = b = 53.4 Å and c = 54.0 Å, and the crystal structure has been determined at 2.5 Å resolution. The four nucleotide residues CGAA of the first half of the oligomer form a parallel duplex with another half through the homo base pairs, C2:C2+ (singly-protonated between the Watson– Crick sites), G3:G3 (between the minor groove sites), A4:A4 (between the major groove sites) and A5:A5 (between the Watson–Crick sites). The two strands remaining in the half of the parallel duplex are split away in different directions, and they pair in an anti-parallel B-form duplex with the second half extending from a neighboring parallel duplex, so that an infinite column is formed in a head-to-tail fashion along the c-axis. It seems that a hexa-ammine cobalt cation supports such a branched and bent conformation of the oligomer. One end of the parallel duplex is stacked on the corresponding end of the adjacent parallel duplex; between them, the guanine base of the first residue is stacked on the fourth ribose of another duplex.

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