DNA nanomachines and nanostructures involving quadruplexes.
DNA is an attractive component for molecular recognition, because of its self-assembly properties. Its three-dimensional structure can differ markedly from the classical double helix. For example, DNA or RNA strands carrying guanine or cytosine stretches associate into four-stranded structures called G-quadruplexes or i-DNA, respectively. Since 2002, several groups have described nanomachines that take advantage of this structural polymorphism. We first introduce the unusual structures that are involved in these devices (i.e., i-DNA and G-quadruplexes) and then describe the opening and closing steps that allow cycling. A quadruplex-duplex molecular machine is then presented in detail, together with the rules that govern its formation, its opening/closing kinetics and the various technical and physico-chemical parameters that play a role in the efficiency of this device. Finally, we review the few examples of nanostructures that involve quadruplexes.
Alberti
Patrizia
P
Laboratoire de Biophysique, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle USM503, INSERM U565, CNRS UMR 5153, 43 rue Cuvier, 75231, Paris cedex 05, France. faucon@mnhn.fr
Bourdoncle
Anne
A
Saccà
Barbara
B
Lacroix
Laurent
L
Mergny
Jean-Louis
JL
D001483:Base Sequence; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D054856:G-Quadruplexes; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation
D004247:DNA