title: Biophysical characterization of an ensemble of intramolecular i-motifs formed by the human c-MYC NHE III1 P1 promoter mutant sequence.
abstract: i-Motif-forming sequences are present in or near the regulatory regions of >40% of all genes, including known oncogenes. We report here the results of a biophysical characterization and computational study of an ensemble of intramolecular i-motifs that model the polypyrimidine sequence in the human c-MYC P1 promoter. Circular dichroism results demonstrate that the mutant sequence (5'-CTT TCC TAC CCTCCC TAC CCT AA-3') can adopt multiple "i-motif-like," classical i-motif, and single-stranded structures as a function of pH. The classical i-motif structures are predominant in the pH range 4.2-5.2. The "i-motif-like" and single-stranded structures are the most significant species in solution at pH higher and lower, respectively, than that range. Differential scanning calorimetry results demonstrate an equilibrium mixture of at least three i-motif folded conformations with Tm values of 38.1, 46.6, and 49.5 degrees C at pH 5.0. The proposed ensemble of three folded conformations includes the three lowest-energy conformations obtained by computational modeling and two folded conformers that were proposed in a previous NMR study. The NMR study did not report the most stable conformer found in this study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, Mississippi, USA.
authors.forename: Jamie M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Dettler
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Buscaglia
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Derek
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cashman
authors.forename: Meredith
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Blynn
authors.forename: Edwin A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Lewis
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D002152:Calorimetry, Differential Scanning; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D006801:Humans; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D050505:Mutant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics*; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D009691:Nucleic Acid Denaturation; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D016271:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myc / Q000235:genetics*; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D050505:Mutant Proteins; D016271:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myc