title: Structure, dynamics, and branch migration of a DNA Holliday junction: a single-molecule fluorescence and modeling study.
abstract: The Holliday junction (HJ) is a central intermediate of various genetic processes, including homologous and site-specific DNA recombination and DNA replication. Elucidating the structure and dynamics of HJs provides the basis for understanding the molecular mechanisms of these genetic processes. Our previous single-molecule fluorescence studies led to a model according to which branch migration is a stepwise process consisting of consecutive migration and folding steps. These data led us to the conclusion that one hop can be more than 1 basepair (bp); moreover, we hypothesized that continuous runs over the entire sequence homology (5 bp) can occur. Direct measurements of the dependence of the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) value on the donor-acceptor (D-A) distance are required to justify this model and are the major goal of this article. To accomplish this goal, we performed single-molecule FRET experiments with a set of six immobile HJ molecules with varying numbers of bps between fluorescent dyes placed on opposite arms. The designs were made in such a way that the distances between the donor and acceptor were equal to the distances between the dyes formed upon 1-bp migration hops of a HJ having 10-bp homology. Using these designs, we confirmed our previous hypothesis that the migration of the junction can be measured with bp accuracy. Moreover, the FRET values determined for each acceptor-donor separation corresponded very well to the values for the steps on the FRET time trajectories, suggesting that each step corresponds to the migration of the branch at a defined depth. We used the dependence of the FRET value on the D-A distance to measure directly the size for each step on the FRET time trajectories. These data showed that one hop is not necessarily 1 bp. The junction is able to migrate over several bps, detected as one hop and confirming our model. The D-A distances extracted from the FRET properties of the immobile junctions formed the basis for modeling the HJ structures. The composite data fit a partially opened, side-by-side model with adjacent double-helical arms slightly kinked at the four-way junction and the junction as a whole adopting a global X-shaped form that mimics the coaxially stacked-X structure implicated in previous solution studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 986025 Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68198-6025, USA.
authors.forename: Mikhail A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Karymov
authors.forename: Mathivanan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chinnaraj
authors.forename: Aleksey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bogdanov
authors.forename: Annankoil R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Srinivasan
authors.forename: Guohui
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Wilma K
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Olson
authors.forename: Yuri L
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Lyubchenko
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D045566:DNA, Cruciform / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005453:Fluorescence; D031541:Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer; D008958:Models, Molecular
chemical_list: D045566:DNA, Cruciform