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Author Spotlight: Characterizing DNA G-Quadruplex by Bis-3-Chloropiperidine Based Chemical Mapping
Published on: May 12, 2023
Serendipitous Discovery of a Guanine-rich DNA Molecule with a Highly Stable Structure in Urea
Wenqing Zhang1, Meng Liu1, Christine Lee2
1Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, McMaster University, 1280 Main St W, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4K1, Canada.
Abstract:
We have made an accidental discovery of an unusual, single-stranded, guanine-rich DNA molecule that is capable of adopting a folded structure in 7 M urea (7MU) known to denature nucleic acid structures. The folding of this molecule requires Na+ and Mg2+ and the folded structure remains stable when subjected to denaturing (7MU) polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Results from sequence mutagenesis, DNA methylation, and circular dichroism spectroscopy studies suggest that this molecule adopts an intramolecular guanine-quadruplex structure with 5 layers of guanine tetrads. Our finding indicates that DNA has the ability to create extremely stable structural folds despite its limited chemical repertoire, making it possible to develop DNA-based systems for unconventional applications.
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