The structural transition and compaction of human telomeric G-quadruplex induced by excluded volume effect under cation-deficient conditions.
The structure polymorphism of human telomeric G-quadruplex (ht-quadruplex) is currently an important topic but remains controversy. Here, we present study of the ht-quadruplex under the cation-deficient but molecular crowding conditions by circular dichroism (CD), microchip electrophoresis (MCE) and UV-melting experiments. Our results show that with concentration increasing of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), the structural transition of ht-quadruplex occurs accompanied by structural compaction and enhanced stabilization, which may be caused by excluded volume effect. This work also demonstrates that ht-quadruplex can be well assembled without cations and the structure of ht-quadruplex is actually very complex in vivo.
State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China.
Jun
J
Zhou
Chunying
C
Wei
Guoqing
G
Jia
Xiuli
X
Wang
Qian
Q
Tang
Zhaochi
Z
Feng
Can
C
Li
D002412:Cations / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D054856:G-Quadruplexes / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation / Q000187:drug effects*; D013053:Spectrophotometry; D016615:Telomere / Q000235:genetics*; D013816:Thermodynamics; D044366:Transition Temperature
D002412:Cations