title: Secondary DNA structure analysis of the coding strand switch regions of five Leishmania major Friedlin chromosomes.
abstract: As part of the EULEISH international genome project, a region of 74,674 nucleotides from chromosome 21 of Leishmania major Friedlin was subcloned and sequenced; and 31 new coding sequences were predicted. Of particular interest was a unique coding strand switching region covering 1.6 kb of DNA; and this was subjected to further investigation. Bioinformatic analysis of this region revealed an unusually high AT composition, a lack of putative hairpins and a strong curvature of the DNA in agreement with the structural characteristics of similar regions of other Leishmania chromosomes. These observations and a comparison with the secondary DNA structure of four other Leishmania chromosomes and chromosomes of different organisms could suggest a functional role of this region in transcription and mitotic division.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tosato
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ciarloni
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Ivens
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Rajandream
authors.forename: B G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Barrell
authors.forename: C V
authors.initials: CV
authors.lastname: Bruschi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019295:Computational Biology; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D004926:Escherichia coli; D005812:Genes, Switch; D018320:Leishmania major / Q000235:genetics*; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology
chemical_list: D016054:DNA, Protozoan