A computer graphics study of multistranded DNA models

A range of related nucleic acid models has been built using the computer graphics system at EMBL (Heidelberg). The relationship between these models is considered in terms of a simple "core" structure. One of these models is a four-strand structure in which two duplexes of the Watson-Crick kind are specifically related by a twofold rotation axis and which has already been discussed in some detail. The models fall into two principal classes. In one, each sugar phosphate chain is attached to every layer of bases in the "core" structure; in the other, each chain is attached to alternate layers of bases. Several of the models discussed have specificity both of complementarity and of identity.