Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 23, 2026

Sequence-specific and Selective Recognition of Double-stranded RNAs over Single-stranded RNAs by Chemically Modified Peptide Nucleic Acids
Published on: September 21, 2017
Site-specific binding of short peptides with DNA modulated eukaryotic endonuclease activity
V Kh Khavinson1, L I Fedoreyeva, B F Vanyushin
1St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology, Northwestern Division of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia.
Abstract:
Short peptides (2-4 amino acid residues) inhibit or stimulate hydrolysis of λ phage DNA by eukaryotic endonucleases WEN1 and WEN2 depending on DNA methylation status. Peptide modulation of endonucleases activity most likely appears as a result of their binding to DNA. Peptides discriminate (recognize) not only certain DNA sequences, but also their methylation status. Apart from intact DNA, the test peptides bind to single-stranded DNA structures (oligonucleotides) containing NG- and CG-sites methylated in eukaryotes. Peptides affect the set of hydrolyzed sites during endonuclease hydrolysis of double-stranded structures. The effects of peptides with different primary structure on DNA hydrolysis by endonucleases are different and are modulated by histones (histone H1). Site-specific peptide interactions with DNA may epigenetically control genetic functions of the cell. These interactions probably played an important role at the very early stages of evolution.
Related Concept Videos
Restriction Enzymes
The host bacteria protect their own genomic DNA from these enzymes by methylating these sites. Some...
Conservative Site-specific Recombination and Phase Variation
The recognition sites for Cre recombinase called LoxP...
Single-Strand DNA Binding Proteins
Conserved Binding Sites
Binding sites are often located in large pockets, and if their location on a protein’s surface is unknown, it can be predicted using various approaches. The energetic method computationally analyses the...
Eukaryotic Transcription Inhibitors
Eukaryotic transcription inhibitors usually contain two distinct domains, a DNA...
Ligand Binding and Linkage

