Determination of DNA minor groove width in distamycin-DNA complexes by solid-state NMR

We have performed solid-state 31P-19F REDOR nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments to monitor changes in minor groove width of the oligonucleotide d(CGCAAA2'FUTGGC)*d(GCCAAT(pS)TT GCG) (A3T2) upon binding of the drug distamycin A at different stoichiometries. In the hydrated solid-state sample, the minor groove width for the unbound DNA, measured as the 2'FU7-pS19 inter-label distance, was 9.4 +/- 0.7 A, comparable to that found for similar A:T-rich DNAs. Binding of a single drug molecule is observed to cause a 2.4 A decrease in groove width. Subsequent addition of a second drug molecule results in a larger conformational change, expanding this minor groove width to 13.6 A, consistent with the results of a previous solution NMR study of the 2:1 complex. These 31P-19F REDOR results demonstrate the ability of solid-state NMR to measure distances of 7-14 A in DNA-drug complexes and provide the first example of a direct spectroscopic measurement of minor groove width in nucleic acids.