title: DNA nanomachines and nanostructures involving quadruplexes.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: 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
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Alberti
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bourdoncle
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Saccà
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lacroix
authors.forename: Jean-Louis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Mergny
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D054856:G-Quadruplexes; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation
chemical_list: D004247:DNA