Characterization of an unusual folding pattern in a catalytically active guanine quadruplex structure

In the presence of certain metal ions, DNA and RNA can form guanine quadruplex structures, which have been proposed to play a functional role in a variety of biological processes. An 18-nucleotide DNA oligomer, PS2.M, d(GTG3TAG3CG3T2G2), was previously reported to bind hemin and the resulting complex exhibited peroxidase activity. It was proposed that PS2.M folds unimolecularly into an antiparallel quadruplex with unusual, single-base loops and terminal guanines positioned in adjacent quartets. Here we describe structural and stability properties of PS2.M alone in different buffers and metal ions, using gel electrophoresis, circular dichroism (CD), ultraviolet (UV)-visible spectroscopies, and one-dimensional 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Native gel behavior of PS2.M in the presence of either Na+ or Pb2+ suggests the formation of unimolecular structures but, in the presence of K+, both unimolecular and multistranded structures are observed. In the presence of Pb2+ ions, PS2.M forms a unimolecular quadruplex containing three guanine quartets. CD titrations reveal that binding of Pb2+ ions to PS2.M is stoichiometric, and a single lead cation suffices to fully fold PS2.M. The PS2.M-Na+ system also forms a similar unimolecular quadruplex. In the presence of K+, the PS2.M-K+ system forms mixed species. With increasing time and PS2.M concentration, the contribution of unimolecular species decreases while that of multimolecular species increases, and this behavior is independent of buffer media. These results suggest that the catalytically active form, studied in the presence of K+, may be a parallel, multistranded quadruplex rather than an antiparallel, unimolecular quadruplex.