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Kinetics of unfolding the human telomeric DNA quadruplex using a PNA trap
Jeremy J Green1, Liming Ying, David Klenerman
1Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, UK.
Abstract:
The kinetics of opening of the DNA quadruplex formed by the human telomeric repeat have been investigated using real-time fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) measurements with a peptide nucleic acid (PNA) trap. It has been found that this opening is zero-order with respect to PNA, indicating that the initial step is a rate-limiting internal rearrangement of the quadruplex. A study of the temperature dependence of the rate of quadruplex opening was performed and the activation energy of the process estimated to be 98 +/- 8 kJ mol(-1).
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