Detection of conformation bias between the complementary strands of deoxynucleotide repeat (TG/AC)n

Antiparallel complementary strands of DNA contribute symmetrically to the helical structure and its stability; rough conformational differences between complementary strands would interfere with this symmetric contribution and the stability. To detect conformational differences between complementary strands, we challenged the complementary strands to different "pore size" of acrylamide gels and measured differences in migration during electrophoretic mobility analysis. Changes in migration differences revealed a significant structural bias between the complementary strands of the dinucleotide repeat deoxy-(TG/AC)n.