title: "Small is beautiful": major modifications in DNA structure or dynamics by small substituents or ligands.
abstract: This short review assembles the contributions of the author's laboratory to the structural aspects of DNA. DNA was modified by small ligands and/or substituents. There are three aspects to this work: a) Protonation of guanosine and DNA and the formation of triple- and quadruple-strands of guanosine, its nucleotides, their polymers and DNA. b) Substitution of the 2'-position of deoxyribose by the most polar atom, fluorine: studies on 2'-deoxy-2'-fluro-nucleosides, -nucleotides and their polymers, studied both by structural and biological methods. c) The effect of introducing the methyl group in the large groove of DNA: NMR studies of oligonucleotides containing N6-methylated adenine residues, and enzymatic and molecular biology work on Dam methylase are reported.
authors.affiliation: CEA/Saclay, Service de Biochimie et Génétique Moléculaire, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Guschlbauer
mesh_terms: D000225:Adenine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives; D001483:Base Sequence; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000187:drug effects; D003855:Deoxyribose; D006150:Guanine Nucleotides; D006151:Guanosine; D008024:Ligands; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D008745:Methylation; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D010957:Plasmids; D011089:Polydeoxyribonucleotides / Q000737:chemistry; D012436:S-Adenosylmethionine / Q000494:pharmacology; D015265:Site-Specific DNA-Methyltransferase (Adenine-Specific) / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D000225:Adenine; D004247:DNA; D003855:Deoxyribose; D006150:Guanine Nucleotides; D006151:Guanosine; D008024:Ligands; D011089:Polydeoxyribonucleotides; D012436:S-Adenosylmethionine; D015265:Site-Specific DNA-Methyltransferase (Adenine-Specific); C058693:Dam methyltransferase; C000730567:6-methyladenine