Strand displacement of double-stranded DNA by triplex-forming antiparallel purine-hairpins

We characterize the binding affinity and the thermodynamics of hybridization of triplex-forming antiparallel purine-hairpins composed of two antiparallel purine domains linked by a loop directed toward single-stranded and double-stranded DNA (ssDNA, dsDNA). Gel retardation assays and melting experim...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Coma, Sílvia, Eritja Casadellà, Ramón, Noé, Véronique, Ciudad, Carlos J.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2005
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:digitalcsic_::72f59dc86d0bba71e171a6b1534eccac
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/124878
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:double stranded DNA
DNA
nucleic acid
guanine
purine
pyrimidine derivative
Base sequence
Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay
Nucleic acid conformation
Polymerase chain reaction
Descripción
Sumario:We characterize the binding affinity and the thermodynamics of hybridization of triplex-forming antiparallel purine-hairpins composed of two antiparallel purine domains linked by a loop directed toward single-stranded and double-stranded DNA (ssDNA, dsDNA). Gel retardation assays and melting experiments reveal that a 13-mer purine-hairpin binds specifically and with a Kd of 8 × 10-8 M to polypyrimidine ssDNA to form a triple helical structure. Remarkably, we show that purine-hairpins also bind polypurine/polypyrimidine stretches included in a dsDNA of several hundred bp in length. Binding of purine-hairpins to dsDNA occurs by triplex formation with the polypyrimidine strand, causing displacement of the polypurine strand. Because triplex formation is restricted to polypurine/polypyrimidine stretches of dsDNA, we studied the triplex formation between purine-hairpins and polypyrimidine targets containing purine interruptions. We found that an 11-mer purine-hairpin with an adenine opposite to a guanine interruption in the polypyrimidine track binds to ssDNA and dsDNA, allowing expansion of the possible target sites and increase in the length of purine-hairpins. Thus, when using a 20-mer purine-hairpin targeting an interruption-containing polypyrimidine target, the binding affinity is increased compared to its 13-mer antiparallel purine-hairpin counterpart. Surprisingly, this increase is much more pronounced than that observed for a tail-clamp purine-hairpin extended up to 20 nt in the Watson-Crick domain only. Thus, triplex-forming antiparallel purine-hairpins can be a potentially useful strategy for both single-strand and double-strand nucleic acid recognition.