title: Structure and stability of DNA quadruplexes under molecular crowding conditions.
abstract: A living cell contains generally macromolecules occupying 20-40% of the total volume. To mimic the crowded cellular condition, we prepared solutions including various cosolutes and investigated the influence of the cosolute on the structure and stability of DNA G-quadruplex. As a result, Tetrahymena telomere sequences form well-ordered G-wires in the presence of cosolutes, whereas human telomere sequences remain as compact G-quadruplexes. Since these sequence motif differ by only one base, these results demonstrate that a single base difference in telomere sequences leads to drastically different structures under the molecular crowding conditions. The findings are useful for understanding G-quadruplex structures in cell-like conditions and for design of DNA nanomaterials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Konan University 8-9-1 Okamoto, Higashinada-ku, Kobe 658-8501, Japan.
authors.forename: Hisae
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Karimata
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Miyoshi
authors.forename: Naoki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sugimoto
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D005026:Ethylene Glycols / Q000737:chemistry; D054856:G-Quadruplexes; D006801:Humans; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D016615:Telomere / Q000737:chemistry*; D013768:Tetrahymena / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D005026:Ethylene Glycols; D004247:DNA