title: Dimerization of the guanine-adenine repeat strands of DNA.
abstract: Jovin and co-workers have demonstrated that DNA strands containing guanine-adenine repeats generate a parallel-stranded homoduplex. Here we propose that the homoduplex is a dimer of the ordered single strand discovered by Fresco and co-workers at acid pH. The Fresco single strand is shown here to be stabilized in aqueous ethanol where adenine is not protonated. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the strands dimerize at higher salt concentrations without significantly changing their conformation, so that the dimerization is non-cooperative. Hence, the Jovin homoduplex can form through a non-cooperative dimerization of two cooperatively melting single strands. The available data indicate that the guanines stabilize the Fresco single strand whereas the adenines cause dimerization owing to their known intercalation or clustering tendency. The guanine-adenine repeat dimer seems to be a DNA analog of the leucine zipper causing dimerization of proteins.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Královopolská 135, CZ-61265 Brno,Czech Republic.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vorlícková
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kejnovská
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kovanda
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kypr
mesh_terms: D000143:Acids / Q000494:pharmacology; D000225:Adenine / Q000737:chemistry*; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D004277:DNA, Single-Stranded / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000187:drug effects; D019281:Dimerization; D018900:Dinucleotide Repeats; D000431:Ethanol / Q000494:pharmacology; D006147:Guanine / Q000737:chemistry*; D006358:Hot Temperature; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation / Q000187:drug effects; D009691:Nucleic Acid Denaturation; D012492:Salts / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D000143:Acids; D004277:DNA, Single-Stranded; D012492:Salts; D000431:Ethanol; D006147:Guanine; D000225:Adenine