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Cytosine ribose flexibility in DNA: a combined NMR 13C spin relaxation and molecular dynamics simulation study
Elke Duchardt1, Lennart Nilsson, Jürgen Schleucher
1Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden. duchardt@bio.uni-frankfurt.de
Abstract:
Using (13)C spin relaxation NMR in combination with molecular dynamic (MD) simulations, we characterized internal motions within double-stranded DNA on the pico- to nano-second time scale. We found that the C-H vectors in all cytosine ribose moieties within the Dickerson-Drew dodecamer (5'-CGCGAATTCGCG-3') are subject to high amplitude motions, while the other nucleotides are essentially rigid. MD simulations showed that repuckering is a likely motional model for the cytosine ribose moiety. Repuckering occurs with a time constant of around 100 ps. Knowledge of DNA dynamics will contribute to our understanding of the recognition specificity of DNA-binding proteins such as cytosine methyltransferase.
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