Different intrastrand and interstrand contributions to stacking account for roll variations at the alternating purine-pyrimidine sequences in A-DNA and A-RNA.
An explanation is suggested for the roll alternation between low and high values in A-type nucleic acid duplexes containing alternating sequences of purine and pyrimidine residues. The explanation combines two points. (1) Roll inevitably occurs in A-type duplexes due to geometrical reasons. (2) Intrastrand base stacking is much more impaired by roll than interstrand base stacking in A-type duplexes. Therefore purine-pyrimidine steps, whose bases mainly exhibit an intrastrand stacking, resist roll and decrease it. By contrast, bases at pyrimidine-purine steps exhibit a significant interstrand stacking that is tolerant to roll in A-type nucleic acid duplexes. In consequence, it is favourable if the purine-pyrimidine and pyrimidine-purine steps adopt low and high rolls, respectively in A-conformations of DNA and RNA molecules containing alternating purine-pyrimidine sequences. This is actually observed in the relevant molecular crystal structures.
Sponer
J
J
Department of Physical Electronics, Faculty of Science, Brno, Czechoslovakia.
Kypr
J
J
D001482:Base Composition; D001483:Base Sequence; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D013816:Thermodynamics
D012313:RNA; D004247:DNA