1
|
Olave B. DNA nanotechnology in ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents. Crit Rev Biotechnol 2024; 44:941-961. [PMID: 37518062 DOI: 10.1080/07388551.2023.2229950] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2022] [Revised: 04/28/2023] [Accepted: 06/01/2023] [Indexed: 08/01/2023]
Abstract
Nucleic acids have the ability to generate advanced nanostructures in a controlled manner and can interact with target sequences or molecules with high affinity and selectivity. For this reason, they have applications in a variety of nanotechnology applications, from highly specific sensors to smart nanomachines and even in other applications such as enantioselective catalysis or drug delivery systems. However, a common disadvantage is the use of water as the ubiquitous solvent. The use of nucleic acids in non-aqueous solvents offers the opportunity to create a completely new toolbox with unprecedented degrees of freedom. Ionic liquids (ILs) and deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are the most promising alternative solvents due to their unique electrolyte and solvent roles, as well as their ability to maintain the stability and functionality of nucleic acids. This review aims to be a comprehensive, critical, and accessible evaluation of how much this goal has been achieved and what are the most critical parameters for accomplishing a breakthrough.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Beñat Olave
- University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Zhang W, Chen Y. Self-assembled Janus base nanotubes: chemistry and applications. Front Chem 2024; 11:1346014. [PMID: 38374885 PMCID: PMC10876059 DOI: 10.3389/fchem.2023.1346014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2023] [Accepted: 12/26/2023] [Indexed: 02/21/2024] Open
Abstract
Janus base nanotubes are novel, self-assembled nanomaterials. Their original designs were inspired by DNA base pairs, and today a variety of chemistries has developed, distinguishing them as a new family of materials separate from DNA origami, carbon nanotubes, polymers, and lipids. This review article covers the principal examples of self-assembled Janus base nanotubes, which are driven by hydrogen-bond and π-π stacking interactions in aqueous environments. Specifically, self-complementary hydrogen bonds organize molecules into ordered arrays, forming macrocycles, while π-π interactions stack these structures to create tubular forms. This review elucidates the molecular interactions that govern the assembly of nanotubes and advances our understanding of nanoscale self-assembly in water.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Yupeng Chen
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Redcenko O, Tumova M, Draber P. Simplified PCR-Based Quantification of Proteins with DNA Aptamers and Methylcellulose as a Blocking Agent. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 25:347. [PMID: 38203527 PMCID: PMC10779054 DOI: 10.3390/ijms25010347] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2023] [Revised: 12/19/2023] [Accepted: 12/22/2023] [Indexed: 01/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Due to their unique three-dimensional structure, DNA or RNA oligonucleotide aptamers bind to various molecules with high affinity and specificity. Aptamers, alone or in combination with antibodies, can be used to sensitively quantify target molecules by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). However, the assays are often complicated and unreliable. In this study, we explored the feasibility of performing the entire assay on wells of routinely used polypropylene PCR plates. We found that polypropylene wells efficiently bind proteins. This allows the entire assay to be run in a single well. To minimize nonspecific binding of the assay components to the polypropylene wells, we tested various blocking agents and identified methylcellulose as an effective alternative to the commonly used BSA. Methylcellulose not only demonstrates comparable or superior blocking capabilities but also offers the advantage of a well-defined composition and non-animal origin. Our findings support the utilization of aptamers, either alone or in combination with antibodies, for sensitive quantification of selected molecules immobilized in polypropylene PCR wells in a streamlined one-well qPCR assay under well-defined conditions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Petr Draber
- Laboratory of Signal Transduction, Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Vídeňská 1083, 142 20 Prague, Czech Republic; (O.R.); (M.T.)
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Li Y, Zheng H, Lu H, Duan M, Li C, Li M, Li J, Wang L, Li Q, Chen J, Shen J. Noncanonical Condensation of Nucleic Acid Chains by Hydrophobic Gold Nanocrystals. JACS AU 2023; 3:2206-2215. [PMID: 37654586 PMCID: PMC10466341 DOI: 10.1021/jacsau.3c00252] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2023] [Revised: 07/21/2023] [Accepted: 07/24/2023] [Indexed: 09/02/2023]
Abstract
Nucleic acid condensates are essential for various biological processes and have numerous applications in nucleic acid nanotechnology, gene therapy, and mRNA vaccines. However, unlike the in vivo condensation that is dependent on motor proteins, the in vitro condensation efficiency remains to be improved. Here, we proposed a hydrophobic interaction-driven mechanism for condensing long nucleic acid chains using atomically precise hydrophobic gold nanoclusters (Au NCs). We found that hydrophobic Au NCs could condense long single-stranded DNA or RNA to form composites of spherical nanostructures, which further assembled into bead-shaped suprastructures in the presence of excessive Au NCs. Thus, suprastructures displayed gel-like behaviors, and Au NCs could diffuse freely inside the condensates, which resemble the collective motions of condensin complexes inside chromosomes. The dynamic hydrophobic interactions between Au NCs and bases allow for the reversible release of nucleic acids in the presence of mild triggering agents. Our method represents a significant advancement toward the development of more efficient and versatile nucleic acid condensation techniques.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yu Li
- Division
of Physical Biology, CAS Key Laboratory of Interfacial Physics and
Technology, Shanghai Institute of Applied
Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
- Department
of Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine, Translational Medicine Research
Center, Naval Medical University, 800, Xiangyin Road, Shanghai 200433 ,China
| | - Haoran Zheng
- School
of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, New Cornerstone Science Laboratory,
Frontiers Science Center for Transformative Molecules, Zhangjiang
Institute for Advanced Study and National Center for Translational
Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Hui Lu
- Zhangjiang
Laboratory, 100 Haike
Road, Shanghai 201210, China
| | - Mulin Duan
- School
of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, New Cornerstone Science Laboratory,
Frontiers Science Center for Transformative Molecules, Zhangjiang
Institute for Advanced Study and National Center for Translational
Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Cong Li
- School
of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, New Cornerstone Science Laboratory,
Frontiers Science Center for Transformative Molecules, Zhangjiang
Institute for Advanced Study and National Center for Translational
Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Mingqiang Li
- School
of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, New Cornerstone Science Laboratory,
Frontiers Science Center for Transformative Molecules, Zhangjiang
Institute for Advanced Study and National Center for Translational
Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Jiang Li
- Institute
of Materiobiology, Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
| | - Lihua Wang
- Zhangjiang
Laboratory, 100 Haike
Road, Shanghai 201210, China
- Institute
of Materiobiology, Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
| | - Qian Li
- School
of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, New Cornerstone Science Laboratory,
Frontiers Science Center for Transformative Molecules, Zhangjiang
Institute for Advanced Study and National Center for Translational
Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Jing Chen
- Institute
of Materiobiology, Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
| | - Jianlei Shen
- School
of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, New Cornerstone Science Laboratory,
Frontiers Science Center for Transformative Molecules, Zhangjiang
Institute for Advanced Study and National Center for Translational
Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Alexiou TS, Likos CN. Effective Interactions between Double-Stranded DNA Molecules in Aqueous Electrolyte Solutions: Effects of Molecular Architecture and Counterion Valency. J Phys Chem B 2023; 127:6969-6981. [PMID: 37493448 PMCID: PMC10424236 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c02216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2023] [Revised: 06/12/2023] [Indexed: 07/27/2023]
Abstract
A computational investigation of the effects of molecular topology, namely, linear and circular, as well as counterion valency, on the ensuing pairwise effective interactions between DNA molecules in an unlinked state is presented. Umbrella sampling simulations have been performed through the introduction of bias potential along a reaction coordinate defined as the distance between the centers-of-mass of pairs of DNA molecules, and effective pair interaction potentials have been computed by employing the weighted histogram analysis method. An interesting comparison can be drawn between the different DNA topologies studied here, especially with regard to the contrasting effects of divalent counterions on the effective pair potentials: while DNA-DNA repulsion in short center-of-mass distances decreases significantly in the presence of divalent counterion-ions (as compared to monovalent ions) for linear DNA, the opposite effect occurs for the DNA minicircles. This can be attributed to the fact that linear DNA fragments can easily adopt relative orientations that minimize electrostatic and steric repulsions by rotating relative to one another and by exhibiting more pronounced bending due to the presence of free ends.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Christos N Likos
- Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, 1090 Vienna, Austria
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Kellogg GE, Marabotti A, Spyrakis F, Mozzarelli A. HINT, a code for understanding the interaction between biomolecules: a tribute to Donald J. Abraham. Front Mol Biosci 2023; 10:1194962. [PMID: 37351551 PMCID: PMC10282649 DOI: 10.3389/fmolb.2023.1194962] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2023] [Accepted: 05/24/2023] [Indexed: 06/24/2023] Open
Abstract
A long-lasting goal of computational biochemists, medicinal chemists, and structural biologists has been the development of tools capable of deciphering the molecule-molecule interaction code that produces a rich variety of complex biomolecular assemblies comprised of the many different simple and biological molecules of life: water, small metabolites, cofactors, substrates, proteins, DNAs, and RNAs. Software applications that can mimic the interactions amongst all of these species, taking account of the laws of thermodynamics, would help gain information for understanding qualitatively and quantitatively key determinants contributing to the energetics of the bimolecular recognition process. This, in turn, would allow the design of novel compounds that might bind at the intermolecular interface by either preventing or reinforcing the recognition. HINT, hydropathic interaction, was a model and software code developed from a deceptively simple idea of Donald Abraham with the close collaboration with Glen Kellogg at Virginia Commonwealth University. HINT is based on a function that scores atom-atom interaction using LogP, the partition coefficient of any molecule between two phases; here, the solvents are water that mimics the cytoplasm milieu and octanol that mimics the protein internal hydropathic environment. This review summarizes the results of the extensive and successful collaboration between Abraham and Kellogg at VCU and the group at the University of Parma for testing HINT in a variety of different biomolecular interactions, from proteins with ligands to proteins with DNA.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Glen E. Kellogg
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Institute for Structural Biology, Drug Discovery and Development, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, United States
| | - Anna Marabotti
- Department of Chemistry and Biology “A Zambelli”, University of Salerno, Fisciano (SA), Italy
| | - Francesca Spyrakis
- Department of Drug Science and Technology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Andrea Mozzarelli
- Department of Food and Drug, University of Parma and Institute of Biophysics, Parma, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Tagami S. Why we are made of proteins and nucleic acids: Structural biology views on extraterrestrial life. Biophys Physicobiol 2023; 20:e200026. [PMID: 38496239 PMCID: PMC10941967 DOI: 10.2142/biophysico.bppb-v20.0026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2023] [Accepted: 05/29/2023] [Indexed: 03/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Is it a miracle that life exists on the Earth, or is it a common phenomenon in the universe? If extraterrestrial organisms exist, what are they like? To answer these questions, we must understand what kinds of molecules could evolve into life, or in other words, what properties are generally required to perform biological functions and store genetic information. This review summarizes recent findings on simple ancestral proteins, outlines the basic knowledge in textbooks, and discusses the generally required properties for biological molecules from structural biology viewpoints (e.g., restriction of shapes, and types of intra- and intermolecular interactions), leading to the conclusion that proteins and nucleic acids are at least one of the simplest (and perhaps very common) forms of catalytic and genetic biopolymers in the universe. This review article is an extended version of the Japanese article, On the Origin of Life: Coevolution between RNA and Peptide, published in SEIBUTSU BUTSURI Vol. 61, p. 232-235 (2021).
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Shunsuke Tagami
- RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, Yokohama, Kanagawa 230-0045, Japan
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Puppulin L, Ishikawa J, Sumino A, Marchesi A, Flechsig H, Umeda K, Kodera N, Nishimasu H, Shibata M. Dynamics of Target DNA Binding and Cleavage by Staphylococcus aureus Cas9 as Revealed by High-Speed Atomic Force Microscopy. ACS NANO 2023; 17:4629-4641. [PMID: 36848598 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.2c10709] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Programmable DNA binding and cleavage by CRISPR-Cas9 has revolutionized the life sciences. However, the off-target cleavage observed in DNA sequences with some homology to the target still represents a major limitation for a more widespread use of Cas9 in biology and medicine. For this reason, complete understanding of the dynamics of DNA binding, interrogation and cleavage by Cas9 is crucial to improve the efficiency of genome editing. Here, we use high-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM) to investigate Staphylococcus aureus Cas9 (SaCas9) and its dynamics of DNA binding and cleavage. Upon binding to single-guide RNA (sgRNA), SaCas9 forms a close bilobed structure that transiently and flexibly adopts also an open configuration. The SaCas9-mediated DNA cleavage is characterized by release of cleaved DNA and immediate dissociation, confirming that SaCas9 operates as a multiple turnover endonuclease. According to present knowledge, the process of searching for target DNA is mainly governed by three-dimensional diffusion. Independent HS-AFM experiments show a potential long-range attractive interaction between SaCas9-sgRNA and its target DNA. The interaction precedes the formation of the stable ternary complex and is observed exclusively in the vicinity of the protospacer-adjacent motif (PAM), up to distances of several nanometers. The direct visualization of the process by sequential topographic images suggests that SaCas9-sgRNA binds to the target sequence first, while the following binding of the PAM is accompanied by local DNA bending and formation of the stable complex. Collectively, our HS-AFM data reveal a potential and unexpected behavior of SaCas9 during the search for DNA targets.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Leonardo Puppulin
- WPI Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI), Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Ishikawa 920-1192, Japan
| | - Junichiro Ishikawa
- Structural Biology Division, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan
| | - Ayumi Sumino
- WPI Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI), Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Ishikawa 920-1192, Japan
- Institute for Frontier Science Initiative, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Ishikawa 920-1192, Japan
| | - Arin Marchesi
- Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Via Tronto, 10/A Torrette di Ancona, 60126, Ancona, Italy
| | - Holger Flechsig
- WPI Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI), Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Ishikawa 920-1192, Japan
| | - Kenichi Umeda
- WPI Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI), Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Ishikawa 920-1192, Japan
| | - Noriyuki Kodera
- WPI Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI), Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Ishikawa 920-1192, Japan
| | - Hiroshi Nishimasu
- Structural Biology Division, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan
- Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
- Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
- Inamori Research Institute for Science, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto 600-8411, Japan
| | - Mikihiro Shibata
- WPI Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI), Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Ishikawa 920-1192, Japan
- Institute for Frontier Science Initiative, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Ishikawa 920-1192, Japan
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Bairoliya S, Goel A, Mukherjee M, Koh Zhi Xiang J, Cao B. Monochloramine Induces Release of DNA and RNA from Bacterial Cells: Quantification, Sequencing Analyses, and Implications. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2022; 56:15791-15804. [PMID: 36215406 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.2c06632] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Monochloramine (MCA) is a widely used secondary disinfectant to suppress microbial growth in drinking water distribution systems. In monochloraminated drinking water, a significant amount of extracellular DNA (eDNA) has been reported, which has many implications ranging from obscuring DNA-based drinking water microbiome analyses to posing potential health concerns. To address this, it is imperative for us to know the origin of the eDNA in drinking water. Using Pseudomonas aeruginosa as a model organism, we report for the first time that MCA induces the release of nucleic acids from both biofilms and planktonic cells. Upon exposure to 2 mg/L MCA, massive release of DNA from suspended cells in both MilliQ water and 0.9% NaCl was directly visualized using live cell imaging in a CellASIC ONIX2 microfluidic system. Exposing established biofilms to MCA also resulted in DNA release from the biofilms, which was confirmed by increased detection of eDNA in the effluent. Intriguingly, massive release of RNA was also observed, and the extracellular RNA (eRNA) was also found to persist in water for days. Sequencing analyses of the eDNA revealed that it could be used to assemble the whole genome of the model organism, while in the water, certain fragments of the genome were more persistent than others. RNA sequencing showed that the eRNA contains non-coding RNA and mRNA, implying its role as a possible signaling molecule in environmental systems and a snapshot of the past metabolic state of the bacterial cells.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sakcham Bairoliya
- Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Interdisciplinary Graduate Program, Nanyang Technological University, 60 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637551, Singapore
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Ave, Singapore 639798, Singapore
| | - Apoorva Goel
- Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Interdisciplinary Graduate Program, Nanyang Technological University, 60 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637551, Singapore
| | - Manisha Mukherjee
- Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Interdisciplinary Graduate Program, Nanyang Technological University, 60 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637551, Singapore
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Ave, Singapore 639798, Singapore
| | - Jonas Koh Zhi Xiang
- Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Interdisciplinary Graduate Program, Nanyang Technological University, 60 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637551, Singapore
| | - Bin Cao
- Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Interdisciplinary Graduate Program, Nanyang Technological University, 60 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637551, Singapore
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Ave, Singapore 639798, Singapore
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Jiang C, Liu Y, Wang L, Lu F. Interaction between Heavy Water and Single-Strand DNA: A SERS Study. Molecules 2022; 27:molecules27186023. [PMID: 36144761 PMCID: PMC9505314 DOI: 10.3390/molecules27186023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2022] [Revised: 09/03/2022] [Accepted: 09/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The structure and function of biological macromolecules change due to intermolecular deuterium bond formation or deuterium substitution with environmental D2O. In this study, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) was used to detect interaction sites between D2O and ssDNA and their action mechanisms. SERS peaks of ssDNA changed with increasing D2O proportions, and the site of action mainly involved A and G bases, whose number strengthened the interaction between sequences and D2O and hence the SERS peak intensities. Fixing the number of A and G bases prevented changes in their positions from significantly altering the map. We also identified the interaction between ssDNA sequences that easily formed a G-quadruplex structure and D2O. The amplitude of the SERS peak intensity change reflected the ssDNA structural stability and number of active sites. These findings are highly significant for exploring genetic exchanges and mutations and could be used to determine the stability and structural changes of biological macromolecules.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Chengshun Jiang
- College of Pharmacy, Naval Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China
- College of Pharmacy, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou 350122, China
| | - Yan Liu
- College of Pharmacy, Naval Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China
| | - Lianghua Wang
- College of Basic Medical Sciences, Naval Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China
| | - Feng Lu
- College of Pharmacy, Naval Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China
- College of Pharmacy, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou 350122, China
- Shanghai Key Laboratory for Pharmaceutical Metabolite Research, Naval Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China
- Correspondence:
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Berryman JT, Taghavi A, Mazur F, Tkatchenko A. Quantum machine learning corrects classical forcefields: Stretching DNA base pairs in explicit solvent. J Chem Phys 2022; 157:064107. [PMID: 35963717 DOI: 10.1063/5.0094727] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
In order to improve the accuracy of molecular dynamics simulations, classical forcefields are supplemented with a kernel-based machine learning method trained on quantum-mechanical fragment energies. As an example application, a potential-energy surface is generalized for a small DNA duplex, taking into account explicit solvation and long-range electron exchange-correlation effects. A long-standing problem in molecular science is that experimental studies of the structural and thermodynamic behavior of DNA under tension are not well confirmed by simulation; study of the potential energy vs extension taking into account a novel correction shows that leading classical DNA models have excessive stiffness with respect to stretching. This discrepancy is found to be common across multiple forcefields. The quantum correction is in qualitative agreement with the experimental thermodynamics for larger DNA double helices, providing a candidate explanation for the general and long-standing discrepancy between single molecule stretching experiments and classical calculations of DNA stretching. The new dataset of quantum calculations should facilitate multiple types of nucleic acid simulation, and the associated Kernel Modified Molecular Dynamics method (KMMD) is applicable to biomolecular simulations in general. KMMD is made available as part of the AMBER22 simulation software.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Joshua T Berryman
- Department of Physics and Materials Science, University of Luxembourg, L-1511 Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
| | - Amirhossein Taghavi
- Department of Physics and Materials Science, University of Luxembourg, L-1511 Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
| | - Florian Mazur
- Department of Physics and Materials Science, University of Luxembourg, L-1511 Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
| | - Alexandre Tkatchenko
- Department of Physics and Materials Science, University of Luxembourg, L-1511 Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
The Bootstrap Model of Prebiotic Networks of Proteins and Nucleic Acids. Life (Basel) 2022; 12:life12050724. [PMID: 35629391 PMCID: PMC9144896 DOI: 10.3390/life12050724] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2022] [Revised: 05/08/2022] [Accepted: 05/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
It is not known how life arose from prebiotic physical chemistry. How did fruitful cell-like associations emerge from the two polymer types—informational (nucleic acids, xNAs = DNA or RNA) and functional (proteins)? Our model shows how functional networks could bootstrap from random sequence-independent initial states. For proteins, we adopt the foldamer hypothesis: through persistent nonequilibrium prebiotic syntheses, short random peptides fold and catalyze the elongation of others. The xNAs enter through random binding to the peptides, and all chains can mutate. Chains grow inside colloids that split when they’re large, coupling faster growth speeds to bigger populations. Random and useless at first, these folding and binding events grow protein—xNA networks that resemble today’s protein–protein networks.
Collapse
|
13
|
Martins ML, Bordallo HN, Mamontov E. Water Dynamics in Cancer Cells: Lessons from Quasielastic Neutron Scattering. Medicina (B Aires) 2022; 58:medicina58050654. [PMID: 35630072 PMCID: PMC9145030 DOI: 10.3390/medicina58050654] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2022] [Revised: 05/04/2022] [Accepted: 05/10/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
The severity of the cancer statistics around the globe and the complexity involving the behavior of cancer cells inevitably calls for contributions from multidisciplinary areas of research. As such, materials science became a powerful asset to support biological research in comprehending the macro and microscopic behavior of cancer cells and untangling factors that may contribute to their progression or remission. The contributions of cellular water dynamics in this process have always been debated and, in recent years, experimental works performed with Quasielastic neutron scattering (QENS) brought new perspectives to these discussions. In this review, we address these works and highlight the value of QENS in comprehending the role played by water molecules in tumor cells and their response to external agents, particularly chemotherapy drugs. In addition, this paper provides an overview of QENS intended for scientists with different backgrounds and comments on the possibilities to be explored with the next-generation spectrometers under construction.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Murillo L. Martins
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
- Correspondence: (M.L.M.); (E.M.)
| | - Heloisa N. Bordallo
- Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 5, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark;
| | - Eugene Mamontov
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
- Correspondence: (M.L.M.); (E.M.)
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Ninham B, Reines B, Battye M, Thomas P. Pulmonary surfactant and COVID-19: A new synthesis. QRB DISCOVERY 2022; 3:e6. [PMID: 37564950 PMCID: PMC10411325 DOI: 10.1017/qrd.2022.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2021] [Revised: 03/24/2022] [Accepted: 04/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Chapter 1 COVID-19 pathogenesis poses paradoxes difficult to explain with traditional physiology. For instance, since type II pneumocytes are considered the primary cellular target of SARS-CoV-2; as these produce pulmonary surfactant (PS), the possibility that insufficient PS plays a role in COVID-19 pathogenesis has been raised. However, the opposite of predicted high alveolar surface tension is found in many early COVID-19 patients: paradoxically normal lung volumes and high compliance occur, with profound hypoxemia. That 'COVID anomaly' was quickly rationalised by invoking traditional vascular mechanisms-mainly because of surprisingly preserved alveolar surface in early hypoxemic cases. However, that quick rejection of alveolar damage only occurred because the actual mechanism of gas exchange has long been presumed to be non-problematic, due to diffusion through the alveolar surface. On the contrary, we provide physical chemical evidence that gas exchange occurs by an process of expansion and contraction of the three-dimensional structures of PS and its associated proteins. This view explains anomalous observations from the level of cryo-TEM to whole individuals. It encompasses results from premature infants to the deepest diving seals. Once understood, the COVID anomaly dissolves and is straightforwardly explained as covert viral damage to the 3D structure of PS, with direct treatment implications. As a natural experiment, the SARS-CoV-2 virus itself has helped us to simplify and clarify not only the nature of dyspnea and its relationship to pulmonary compliance, but also the fine detail of the PS including such features as water channels which had heretofore been entirely unexpected. Chapter 2 For a long time, physical, colloid and surface chemistry have not intersected with physiology and cell biology as much as we might have hoped. The reasons are starting to become clear. The discipline of physical chemistry suffered from serious unrecognised omissions that rendered it ineffective. These foundational defects included omission of specific ion molecular forces and hydration effects. The discipline lacked a predictive theory of self-assembly of lipids and proteins. Worse, theory omitted any role for dissolved gases, O2, N2, CO2, and their existence as stable nanobubbles above physiological salt concentration. Recent developments have gone some way to explaining the foam-like lung surfactant structures and function. It delivers O2/N2 as nanobubbles, and efflux of CO2, and H2O nanobubbles at the alveolar surface. Knowledge of pulmonary surfactant structure allows an explanation of the mechanism of corona virus entry, and differences in infectivity of different variants. CO2 nanobubbles, resulting from metabolism passing through the molecular frit provided by the glycocalyx of venous tissue, forms the previously unexplained foam which is the endothelial surface layer. CO2 nanobubbles turn out to be lethal to viruses, providing a plausible explanation for the origin of 'Long COVID'. Circulating nanobubbles, stable above physiological 0.17 M salt drive various enzyme-like activities and chemical reactions. Awareness of the microstructure of Pulmonary Surfactant and that nanobubbles of (O2/N2) and CO2 are integral to respiratory and circulatory physiology provides new insights to the COVID-19 and other pathogen activity.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Barry Ninham
- Materials Physics (formerly Department of Applied Mathematics), Research School of Physics, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT2600, Australia
- School of Science, University of New South Wales, Northcott Drive, Campbell, Canberra, ACT2612, Australia
| | - Brandon Reines
- Materials Physics (formerly Department of Applied Mathematics), Research School of Physics, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT2600, Australia
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 5607 Baum Blvd, Pittsburgh, PA15206, USA
| | | | - Paul Thomas
- Materials Physics (formerly Department of Applied Mathematics), Research School of Physics, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT2600, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
15
|
Mozo-Villarías A, Cedano JA, Querol E. The use of vector formalism in the analysis of hydrophobic and electric driving forces in biological assemblies. Q Rev Biophys 2022; 55:1-50. [PMID: 35400352 DOI: 10.1017/s0033583522000038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
Hydrophobic forces are known to have a crucial part not only in the conformation of the three-dimensional structure of proteins, but also in the build-up of DNA–protein complexes. Electric forces also play an important role both in the tertiary as well in the quaternary structure of macromolecular associations. Sometimes both hydrophobic and electric interactions add up their strengths to accomplish these structures but in most cases they act in opposite directions. This fact, together with being overall interactions with different ranges, provides a nuanced equilibrium also modulated by the need to comply with steric hindrances and geometric frustration effects. This review focuses on the utility of using the hydrophobic and electrical dipole moment vectors to describe the interactions that give rise to the structures of biological macromolecules. Although different definitions of both electric dipole and hydrophobic moments have been described in the literature, results obtained in biological assemblies demonstrate the principle of the biological membrane model. According to this model, postulated by our group, biological macromolecules tend to associate by aligning their hydrophobic moments in a similar manner to phospholipids in a membrane. Examples of both closed and open structures are used to assess the predictability of our model. We seek agreement between our results with those described in the current literature. The review ends with possible future projections using this formalism.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Angel Mozo-Villarías
- Institut de Biotecnologia i Biomedicina and Departament de Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Campus de Bellaterra, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Juan A Cedano
- Institut de Biotecnologia i Biomedicina and Departament de Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Campus de Bellaterra, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Enrique Querol
- Institut de Biotecnologia i Biomedicina and Departament de Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Campus de Bellaterra, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Akin-Ojo O. Contribution of the Induced-Dipole Interaction to Methane Aggregation in Water. J Phys Chem B 2022; 126:2552-2556. [PMID: 35333514 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.2c00518] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Apolar molecules in the gas phase have no dipole moments. However, when placed in an aqueous environment, they acquire a dipole moment induced by the electric fields of the surrounding water molecules. Could these induced dipole moments, not present in the gas phase but present in solution, play an important role in the hydrophobic interaction between two apolar molecules? In particular, for two methane molecules, our results show that the interaction between the induced-dipole moments only very weakly plays a role in the aggregation of a pair of methane molecules in water. The induced-dipole-induced-dipole interaction has a magnitude as large as 1 kcal/mol for certain mutual orientations of the induced dipole moments, which is larger than the magnitude of the free energy of aggregation of the methane solutes in water. However, when averaged over all physically occurring conformations for a fixed intersolute separation, this interaction averages to an insignificant value (magnitude less than 0.01 kcal/mol) except, possibly, for some very short intermolecular separation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Omololu Akin-Ojo
- ICTP East African Institute for Fundamental Research (EAIFR), University of Rwanda, Kigali, Rwanda
| |
Collapse
|
17
|
Chen J, Sun L, Wang S, Tian F, Zhu H, Zhang R, Dai L. Crowding-induced polymer trapping in a channel. Phys Rev E 2021; 104:054502. [PMID: 34942690 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.104.054502] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2021] [Accepted: 10/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
In this work, we report an intriguing phenomenon: crowding-induced polymer trapping in a channel. Using Langevin dynamics simulations and analytical calculations, we find that for a polymer confined in a channel, crowding particles can push a polymer into the channel corner through inducing an effective polymer-corner attraction due to the depletion effect. This phenomenon is referred to as polymer trapping. The occurrence of polymer trapping requires a minimum volume fraction of crowders, ϕ^{*}, which scales as ϕ^{*}∼(a_{c}/L_{p})^{1/3} for a_{c}≫a_{m} and ϕ^{*}∼(a_{c}/L_{p})^{1/3}(a_{c}/a_{m})^{1/2} for a_{c}≪a_{m}, where a_{c} is the crowder diameter, a_{m} is the monomer diameter, and L_{p} is the polymer persistence length. For DNA, ϕ^{*} is estimated to be around 0.25 for crowders with a_{c}=2nm. We find that ϕ^{*} also strongly depends on the shape of the channel cross section, and ϕ^{*} is much smaller for a triangle channel than a square channel. The polymer trapping leads to a nearly fully stretched polymer conformation along a channel corner, which may have practical applications, such as full stretching of DNA for the nanochannel-based genome mapping technology.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jialu Chen
- Department of Physics, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Liang Sun
- Department of Physics, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Simin Wang
- Department of Physics, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Fujia Tian
- Department of Physics, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Haoqi Zhu
- Department of Physics, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Ruiqin Zhang
- Department of Physics, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Liang Dai
- Department of Physics, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| |
Collapse
|
18
|
Morzy D, Joshi H, Sandler SE, Aksimentiev A, Keyser UF. Membrane Activity of a DNA-Based Ion Channel Depends on the Stability of Its Double-Stranded Structure. NANO LETTERS 2021; 21:9789-9796. [PMID: 34767378 DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c03791] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
DNA nanotechnology has emerged as a promising method for designing spontaneously inserting and fully controllable synthetic ion channels. However, both insertion efficiency and stability of existing DNA-based membrane channels leave much room for improvement. Here, we demonstrate an approach to overcoming the unfavorable DNA-lipid interactions that hinder the formation of a stable transmembrane pore. Our all-atom MD simulations and experiments show that the insertion-driving cholesterol modifications can cause fraying of terminal base pairs of nicked DNA constructs, distorting them when embedded in a lipid bilayer. Importantly, we show that DNA nanostructures with no backbone discontinuities form more stable conductive pores and insert into membranes with a higher efficiency than the equivalent nicked constructs. Moreover, lack of nicks allows design and maintenance of membrane-spanning helices in a tilted orientation within the lipid bilayer. Thus, reducing the conformational degrees of freedom of the DNA nanostructures enables better control over their function as synthetic ion channels.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Diana Morzy
- Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 0HE, United Kingdom
| | - Himanshu Joshi
- Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
| | - Sarah E Sandler
- Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 0HE, United Kingdom
| | - Aleksei Aksimentiev
- Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 405 North Mathews Avenue, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
| | - Ulrich F Keyser
- Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 0HE, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
19
|
Booth R, Insua I, Ahmed S, Rioboo A, Montenegro J. Supramolecular fibrillation of peptide amphiphiles induces environmental responses in aqueous droplets. Nat Commun 2021; 12:6421. [PMID: 34741043 PMCID: PMC8571317 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26681-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2021] [Accepted: 10/17/2021] [Indexed: 02/02/2023] Open
Abstract
One-dimensional (1D) supramolecular polymers are commonly found in natural and synthetic systems to prompt functional responses that capitalise on hierarchical molecular ordering. Despite amphiphilic self-assembly being significantly studied in the context of aqueous encapsulation and autopoiesis, very little is currently known about the physico-chemical consequences and functional role of 1D supramolecular polymerisation confined in aqueous compartments. Here, we describe the different phenomena that resulted from the chemically triggered supramolecular fibrillation of synthetic peptide amphiphiles inside water microdroplets. The confined connection of suitable dormant precursors triggered a physically autocatalysed chemical reaction that resulted in functional environmental responses such as molecular uptake, fusion and chemical exchange. These results demonstrate the potential of minimalistic 1D supramolecular polymerisation to modulate the behaviour of individual aqueous entities with their environment and within communities.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Richard Booth
- Centro Singular de Investigación en Química Biolóxica e Materiais Moleculares (CiQUS), Departamento de Química Orgánica, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15705, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
| | - Ignacio Insua
- Centro Singular de Investigación en Química Biolóxica e Materiais Moleculares (CiQUS), Departamento de Química Orgánica, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15705, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
| | - Sahnawaz Ahmed
- Centro Singular de Investigación en Química Biolóxica e Materiais Moleculares (CiQUS), Departamento de Química Orgánica, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15705, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
| | - Alicia Rioboo
- Centro Singular de Investigación en Química Biolóxica e Materiais Moleculares (CiQUS), Departamento de Química Orgánica, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15705, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
| | - Javier Montenegro
- Centro Singular de Investigación en Química Biolóxica e Materiais Moleculares (CiQUS), Departamento de Química Orgánica, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15705, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
| |
Collapse
|
20
|
Svidlov A, Drobotenko M, Basov A, Gerasimenko E, Elkina A, Baryshev M, Nechipurenko Y, Dzhimak S. Influence of Environmental Parameters on the Stability of the DNA Molecule. ENTROPY (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2021; 23:1446. [PMID: 34828144 PMCID: PMC8622188 DOI: 10.3390/e23111446] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2021] [Revised: 10/27/2021] [Accepted: 10/29/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Fluctuations in viscosity within the cell nucleus have wide limits. When a DNA molecule passes from the region of high viscosity values to the region of low values, open states, denaturation bubbles, and unweaving of DNA strands can occur. Stabilization of the molecule is provided by energy dissipation-dissipation due to interaction with the environment. Separate sections of a DNA molecule in a twisted state can experience supercoiling stress, which, among other things, is due to complex entropic effects caused by interaction with a solvent. In this work, based on the numerical solution of a mechanical mathematical model for the interferon alpha 17 gene and a fragment of the Drosophila gene, an analysis of the external environment viscosity influence on the dynamics of the DNA molecule and its stability was carried out. It has been shown that an increase in viscosity leads to a rapid stabilization of the angular vibrations of nitrogenous bases, while a decrease in viscosity changes the dynamics of DNA: the rate of change in the angular deviations of nitrogenous bases increases and the angular deformations of the DNA strands increase at each moment of time. These processes lead to DNA instability, which increases with time. Thus, the paper considers the influence of the external environment viscosity on the dissipation of the DNA nitrogenous bases' vibrational motion energy. Additionally, the study on the basis of the described model of the molecular dynamics of physiological processes at different indicators of the rheological behavior of nucleoplasm will allow a deeper understanding of the processes of nonequilibrium physics of an active substance in a living cell to be obtained.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alexander Svidlov
- Department of Radiophysics and Nanothechnology, Kuban State University, 350040 Krasnodar, Russia; (A.S.); (M.D.); (A.B.); (A.E.); (M.B.)
- Federal Research Center the Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 344006 Rostov-on-Don, Russia
| | - Mikhail Drobotenko
- Department of Radiophysics and Nanothechnology, Kuban State University, 350040 Krasnodar, Russia; (A.S.); (M.D.); (A.B.); (A.E.); (M.B.)
| | - Alexander Basov
- Department of Radiophysics and Nanothechnology, Kuban State University, 350040 Krasnodar, Russia; (A.S.); (M.D.); (A.B.); (A.E.); (M.B.)
- Department of Fundamental and Clinical Biochemistry, Kuban State Medical University, 350063 Krasnodar, Russia
| | - Eugeny Gerasimenko
- Department of Technology of Fats, Cosmetics, Commodity Science, Processes and Devices Kuban State Technological University, 350072 Krasnodar, Russia;
| | - Anna Elkina
- Department of Radiophysics and Nanothechnology, Kuban State University, 350040 Krasnodar, Russia; (A.S.); (M.D.); (A.B.); (A.E.); (M.B.)
- Federal Research Center the Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 344006 Rostov-on-Don, Russia
- Department of Technology of Fats, Cosmetics, Commodity Science, Processes and Devices Kuban State Technological University, 350072 Krasnodar, Russia;
| | - Mikhail Baryshev
- Department of Radiophysics and Nanothechnology, Kuban State University, 350040 Krasnodar, Russia; (A.S.); (M.D.); (A.B.); (A.E.); (M.B.)
- Federal Research Center the Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 344006 Rostov-on-Don, Russia
- Department of Technology of Fats, Cosmetics, Commodity Science, Processes and Devices Kuban State Technological University, 350072 Krasnodar, Russia;
| | - Yury Nechipurenko
- Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991 Moscow, Russia;
| | - Stepan Dzhimak
- Department of Radiophysics and Nanothechnology, Kuban State University, 350040 Krasnodar, Russia; (A.S.); (M.D.); (A.B.); (A.E.); (M.B.)
- Federal Research Center the Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 344006 Rostov-on-Don, Russia
- Department of Technology of Fats, Cosmetics, Commodity Science, Processes and Devices Kuban State Technological University, 350072 Krasnodar, Russia;
| |
Collapse
|
21
|
Gunawardhana SM, Holmstrom ED. Apolar chemical environments compact unfolded RNAs and can promote folding. BIOPHYSICAL REPORTS 2021; 1. [PMID: 35382036 PMCID: PMC8978554 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpr.2021.100004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
It is well documented that the structure, and thus function, of nucleic acids depends on the chemical environment surrounding them, which often includes potential proteinaceous binding partners. The nonpolar amino acid side chains of these proteins will invariably alter the polarity of the local chemical environment around the nucleic acid. However, we are only beginning to understand how environmental polarity generally influences the structural and energetic properties of RNA folding. Here, we use a series of aqueous-organic cosolvent mixtures to systematically modulate the solvent polarity around two different RNA folding constructs that can form either secondary or tertiary structural elements. Using single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer spectroscopy to simultaneously monitor the structural and energetic properties of these RNAs, we show that the unfolded conformations of both model RNAs become more compact in apolar environments characterized by dielectric constants less than that of pure water. In the case of tertiary structure formation, this compaction also gives rise to more energetically favorable folding. We propose that these physical changes arise from an enhanced accumulation of counterions in the low dielectric environment surrounding the unfolded RNA.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Erik D Holmstrom
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.,Department of Chemistry, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
| |
Collapse
|
22
|
Köhn B, Schwarz P, Wittung-Stafshede P, Kovermann M. Impact of crowded environments on binding between protein and single-stranded DNA. Sci Rep 2021; 11:17682. [PMID: 34480058 PMCID: PMC8417293 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-97219-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2021] [Accepted: 08/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
The concept of Molecular Crowding depicts the high density of diverse molecules present in the cellular interior. Here, we determine the impact of low molecular weight and larger molecules on binding capacity of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) to the cold shock protein B (CspB). Whereas structural features of ssDNA-bound CspB are fully conserved in crowded environments as probed by high-resolution NMR spectroscopy, intrinsic fluorescence quenching experiments reveal subtle changes in equilibrium affinity. Kinetic stopped-flow data showed that DNA-to-protein association is significantly retarded independent of choice of the molecule that is added to the solution, but dissociation depends in a nontrivial way on its size and chemical characteristics. Thus, for this DNA-protein interaction, excluded volume effect does not play the dominant role but instead observed effects are dictated by the chemical properties of the crowder. We propose that surrounding molecules are capable of specific modification of the protein's hydration shell via soft interactions that, in turn, tune protein-ligand binding dynamics and affinity.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Birgit Köhn
- Department of Chemistry, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstrasse 10, 78457, Konstanz, Germany.,Konstanz Research School Chemical Biology KoRS-CB, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstrasse 10, 78457, Konstanz, Germany
| | - Patricia Schwarz
- Department of Chemistry, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstrasse 10, 78457, Konstanz, Germany
| | - Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede
- Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, 41296, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Michael Kovermann
- Department of Chemistry, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstrasse 10, 78457, Konstanz, Germany. .,Konstanz Research School Chemical Biology KoRS-CB, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstrasse 10, 78457, Konstanz, Germany.
| |
Collapse
|
23
|
Structural Water Stabilizes Protein Motifs in Liquid Protein Phase: The Folding Mechanism of Short β-Sheets Coupled to Phase Transition. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22:ijms22168595. [PMID: 34445303 PMCID: PMC8395295 DOI: 10.3390/ijms22168595] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2021] [Revised: 08/03/2021] [Accepted: 08/05/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Macromolecular associates, such as membraneless organelles or lipid-protein assemblies, provide a hydrophobic environment, i.e., a liquid protein phase (LP), where folding preferences can be drastically altered. LP as well as the associated phase change from water (W) is an intriguing phenomenon related to numerous biological processes and also possesses potential in nanotechnological applications. However, the energetic effects of a hydrophobic yet water-containing environment on protein folding are poorly understood. Here, we focus on small β-sheets, the key motifs of proteins, undergoing structural changes in liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS) and also model the mechanism of energy-coupled unfolding, e.g., in proteases, during W → LP transition. Due to the importance of the accurate description for hydrogen bonding patterns, the employed models were studied by using quantum mechanical calculations. The results demonstrate that unfolding is energetically less favored in LP by ~0.3–0.5 kcal·mol−1 per residue in which the difference further increased by the presence of explicit structural water molecules, where the folded state was preferred by ~1.2–2.3 kcal·mol−1 per residue relative to that in W. Energetics at the LP/W interfaces was also addressed by theoretical isodesmic reactions. While the models predict folded state preference in LP, the unfolding from LP to W renders the process highly favorable since the unfolded end state has >1 kcal·mol−1 per residue excess stabilization.
Collapse
|
24
|
Liu G, Wong WSY, Kraft M, Ager JW, Vollmer D, Xu R. Wetting-regulated gas-involving (photo)electrocatalysis: biomimetics in energy conversion. Chem Soc Rev 2021; 50:10674-10699. [PMID: 34369513 DOI: 10.1039/d1cs00258a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
(Photo)electrolysis of water or gases with water to species serving as industrial feedstocks and energy carriers, such as hydrogen, ammonia, ethylene, propanol, etc., has drawn tremendous attention. Moreover, these processes can often be driven by renewable energy under ambient conditions as a sustainable alternative to traditional high-temperature and high-pressure synthesis methods. In addition to the extensive studies on catalyst development, increasing attention has been paid to the regulation of gas transport/diffusion behaviors during gas-involving (photo)electrocatalytic reactions towards the goal of creating industrially viable catalytic systems with high reaction rates, excellent long-term stabilities and near-unity selectivities. Biomimetic surfaces and systems with special wetting capabilities and structural advantages can shed light on the future design of (photo)electrodes and address long-standing challenges. This article is dedicated to bridging the fields of wetting and catalysis by reviewing the cutting-edge design methodologies of both gas-evolving and gas-consuming (photo)electrocatalytic systems. We first introduce the fundamentals of various in-air/underwater wetting states and their corresponding bioinspired structural properties. The relationship amongst the bubble transport behavior, wettability, and porosity/tortuosity is also discussed. Next, the latest implementations of wetting-related design principles for gas-evolving reactions (i.e. the hydrogen evolution reaction and oxygen evolution reaction) and gas-consuming reactions (i.e. the oxygen reduction reaction and CO2 reduction reaction) are summarized. For photoelectrode designs, additional factors are taken into account, such as light absorption and the separation, transport and recombination of photoinduced electrons and holes. The influences of wettability and 3D structuring of (photo)electrodes on the catalytic activity, stability and selectivity are analyzed to reveal the underlying mechanisms. Finally, remaining questions and related future perspectives are outlined.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Guanyu Liu
- School of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 62 Nanyang Drive, 637459 Singapore. and Cambridge Centre for Advanced Research and Education in Singapore (CARES), CREATE Tower, 1 Create Way, 138602 Singapore
| | - William S Y Wong
- Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, D-55128, Mainz, Germany
| | - Markus Kraft
- Cambridge Centre for Advanced Research and Education in Singapore (CARES), CREATE Tower, 1 Create Way, 138602 Singapore and Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, West Cambridge Site, Philippa Fawcett Drive, Cambridge CB3 0AS, UK
| | - Joel W Ager
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA and Berkeley Educational Alliance for Research in Singapore (BEARS), CREATE Tower, 1 Create Way, 138602 Singapore
| | - Doris Vollmer
- Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, D-55128, Mainz, Germany
| | - Rong Xu
- School of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 62 Nanyang Drive, 637459 Singapore. and Cambridge Centre for Advanced Research and Education in Singapore (CARES), CREATE Tower, 1 Create Way, 138602 Singapore
| |
Collapse
|
25
|
Klika Škopić M, Gramse C, Oliva R, Pospich S, Neukirch L, Manisegaran M, Raunser S, Winter R, Weberskirch R, Brunschweiger A. Towards DNA-Encoded Micellar Chemistry: DNA-Micelle Association and Environment Sensitivity of Catalysis. Chemistry 2021; 27:10048-10057. [PMID: 33979454 PMCID: PMC8361662 DOI: 10.1002/chem.202100980] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
The development of DNA-compatible reaction methodologies is a central theme to advance DNA-encoded screening library technology. Recently, we were able to show that sulfonic acid-functionalized block copolymer micelles facilitated Brønsted acid-promoted reactions such as the Povarov reaction on DNA-coupled starting materials with minimal DNA degradation. Here, the impact of polymer composition on micelle shape, and reaction conversion was investigated. A dozen sulfonic acid-functionalized block copolymers of different molar mass and composition were prepared by RAFT polymerization and were tested in the Povarov reaction, removal of the Boc protective group, and the Biginelli reaction. The results showed trends in the polymer structure-micellar catalytic activity relationship. For instance, micelles composed of block copolymers with shorter acrylate ester chains formed smaller particles and tended to provide faster reaction kinetics. Moreover, fluorescence quenching experiments as well as circular dichroism spectroscopy showed that DNA-oligomer-conjugates, although highly water-soluble, accumulated very effectively in the micellar compartments, which is a prerequisite for carrying out a DNA-encoded reaction in the presence of polymer micelles.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mateja Klika Škopić
- Medicinal ChemistryFaculty of Chemistry and Chemical BiologyTU Dortmund UniversityOtto-Hahn-Straße 644227DortmundGermany
| | - Christian Gramse
- Polymer Hybrid SystemsFaculty of Chemistry and Chemical BiologyTU Dortmund UniversityOtto-Hahn-Straße 644227DortmundGermany
| | - Rosario Oliva
- Physical Chemistry – Biophysical ChemistryFaculty of Chemistry and Chemical BiologyTU Dortmund UniversityOtto-Hahn-Straße 4a44227DortmundGermany
| | - Sabrina Pospich
- Department of Structural BiochemistryMax Planck Institute of Molecular PhysiologyOtto-Hahn-Straße 1144227DortmundGermany
| | - Laura Neukirch
- Medicinal ChemistryFaculty of Chemistry and Chemical BiologyTU Dortmund UniversityOtto-Hahn-Straße 644227DortmundGermany
| | - Magiliny Manisegaran
- Physical Chemistry – Biophysical ChemistryFaculty of Chemistry and Chemical BiologyTU Dortmund UniversityOtto-Hahn-Straße 4a44227DortmundGermany
| | - Stefan Raunser
- Department of Structural BiochemistryMax Planck Institute of Molecular PhysiologyOtto-Hahn-Straße 1144227DortmundGermany
| | - Roland Winter
- Physical Chemistry – Biophysical ChemistryFaculty of Chemistry and Chemical BiologyTU Dortmund UniversityOtto-Hahn-Straße 4a44227DortmundGermany
| | - Ralf Weberskirch
- Polymer Hybrid SystemsFaculty of Chemistry and Chemical BiologyTU Dortmund UniversityOtto-Hahn-Straße 644227DortmundGermany
| | - Andreas Brunschweiger
- Medicinal ChemistryFaculty of Chemistry and Chemical BiologyTU Dortmund UniversityOtto-Hahn-Straße 644227DortmundGermany
| |
Collapse
|
26
|
Almeida FCL, Sanches K, Pinheiro-Aguiar R, Almeida VS, Caruso IP. Protein Surface Interactions-Theoretical and Experimental Studies. Front Mol Biosci 2021; 8:706002. [PMID: 34307462 PMCID: PMC8298896 DOI: 10.3389/fmolb.2021.706002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2021] [Accepted: 06/29/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In this review, we briefly describe a theoretical discussion of protein folding, presenting the relative contribution of the hydrophobic effect versus the stabilization of proteins via direct surface forces that sometimes may be overlooked. We present NMR-based studies showing the stability of proteins lacking a hydrophobic core which in turn present hydrophobic surface clusters, such as plant defensins. Protein dynamics measurements by NMR are the key feature to understand these dynamic surface clusters. We contextualize the measurement of protein dynamics by nuclear relaxation and the information available at protein surfaces and water cavities. We also discuss the presence of hydrophobic surface clusters in multidomain proteins and their participation in transient interactions which may regulate the function of these proteins. In the end, we discuss how surface interaction regulates the reactivity of certain protein post-translational modifications, such as S-nitrosation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Fabio C L Almeida
- Institute of Medical Biochemistry-IBqM, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.,National Center for Structural Biology and Bioimaging (CENABIO)/National Center for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (CNRMN), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Karoline Sanches
- Institute of Medical Biochemistry-IBqM, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.,National Center for Structural Biology and Bioimaging (CENABIO)/National Center for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (CNRMN), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.,Multiuser Center for Biomolecular Innovation (CMIB), Institute of Biosciences, Letters and Exact Sciences (IBILCE), São Paulo State University "Júlio de Mesquita Filho" (UNESP), São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Ramon Pinheiro-Aguiar
- Institute of Medical Biochemistry-IBqM, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.,National Center for Structural Biology and Bioimaging (CENABIO)/National Center for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (CNRMN), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Vitor S Almeida
- Institute of Medical Biochemistry-IBqM, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.,National Center for Structural Biology and Bioimaging (CENABIO)/National Center for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (CNRMN), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Icaro P Caruso
- Institute of Medical Biochemistry-IBqM, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.,National Center for Structural Biology and Bioimaging (CENABIO)/National Center for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (CNRMN), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.,Multiuser Center for Biomolecular Innovation (CMIB), Institute of Biosciences, Letters and Exact Sciences (IBILCE), São Paulo State University "Júlio de Mesquita Filho" (UNESP), São Paulo, Brazil
| |
Collapse
|
27
|
Mozo-Villarías A, Cedano J, Querol E. The importance of hydrophobic interactions in the structure of transcription systems. EUROPEAN BIOPHYSICS JOURNAL : EBJ 2021; 50:951-961. [PMID: 34131772 DOI: 10.1007/s00249-021-01557-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2020] [Revised: 06/08/2021] [Accepted: 06/09/2021] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Hydrophobic forces play a crucial role in both the stability of B DNA and its interactions with proteins. In the present study, we postulate that the hydrophobic effect is an essential component in establishing specificity in the interaction transcription factor proteins with their consensus DNA sequence partners. The PDB coordinates of more than 50 transcription systems have been used to analyze the hydrophobic attraction of proteins towards their DNA consensus. This analysis includes computing the hydrophobic energy of the interacting molecules by means of their hydrophobic moments. Hydrophobic moments have successfully been used in previous studies involving self-assembly protein systems. In the present case, in spite of some variability, we found specificity in transcription factors when interacting with their respective consensus DNA sequences. By applying our model of biological membrane pattern for hydrophobic interactions, we postulate that hydrophobic forces constitute the necessary intermediate interaction between the unspecific electrostatic attraction for DNA phosphate groups and the very short-range interaction promoting hydrogen bonds. We conclude that hydrophobic interactions serve as the intermediate force guiding transcriptions factors towards the proper hydrogen bonds to their DNAs.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Angel Mozo-Villarías
- Departament de Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Campus de Bellaterra, Institut de Biotecnologia i Biomedicina, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Juan Cedano
- Departament de Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Campus de Bellaterra, Institut de Biotecnologia i Biomedicina, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Enrique Querol
- Departament de Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Campus de Bellaterra, Institut de Biotecnologia i Biomedicina, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain
| |
Collapse
|
28
|
Tomek KJ, Volkel K, Indermaur EW, Tuck JM, Keung AJ. Promiscuous molecules for smarter file operations in DNA-based data storage. Nat Commun 2021; 12:3518. [PMID: 34112775 PMCID: PMC8192770 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-23669-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2021] [Accepted: 05/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
DNA holds significant promise as a data storage medium due to its density, longevity, and resource and energy conservation. These advantages arise from the inherent biomolecular structure of DNA which differentiates it from conventional storage media. The unique molecular architecture of DNA storage also prompts important discussions on how data should be organized, accessed, and manipulated and what practical functionalities may be possible. Here we leverage thermodynamic tuning of biomolecular interactions to implement useful data access and organizational features. Specific sets of environmental conditions including distinct DNA concentrations and temperatures were screened for their ability to switchably access either all DNA strands encoding full image files from a GB-sized background database or subsets of those strands encoding low resolution, File Preview, versions. We demonstrate File Preview with four JPEG images and provide an argument for the substantial and practical economic benefit of this generalizable strategy to organize data.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kyle J Tomek
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Kevin Volkel
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Elaine W Indermaur
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - James M Tuck
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA.
| | - Albert J Keung
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
29
|
Sarkar S, Chandra Singh P. Spectroscopic and Simulation Studies of the Sequence-Dependent DNA Destabilization by a Fungicide. ACS OMEGA 2021; 6:14371-14378. [PMID: 34124459 PMCID: PMC8190899 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.1c01228] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2021] [Accepted: 05/17/2021] [Indexed: 05/08/2023]
Abstract
The understanding of the structural change of DNA induced by fungicides is essential as the non-targeted action of fungicides causes genotoxicity, leading to several serious diseases such as cancer, behavioral change, and nausea. In this study, the binding of an important fungicide, namely, n-dodecylguanidine acetate (dodine), with B-DNA having different sequences of nucleobases and its effect on the structure of B-DNA has been investigated using spectroscopic and simulation methods. In general, the addition of dodine destabilizes DNA; however, the binding of dodine causing the destabilization of DNA is highly sequence dependent. In the case of adenine(A)-thymine(T)-based DNA, dodine intrudes into the minor groove of DNA and interacts with the A-T bases mainly through its hydrocarbon tail, which destabilizes the stacking interaction of the flanking bases. In contrast, the polar group of dodine interacts with guanine(G)-cytosine(C)-rich DNA, and the interaction is dynamic as it shuttles between the minor groove and terminal regions. The binding of dodine with G-C-rich DNA affects the stacking interaction of the terminal base regions specifically. This study reveals the base-specific binding mode of dodine, which causes destabilization of the duplex DNA.
Collapse
|
30
|
Prokhorov VV, Barinov NA, Prusakov KA, Dubrovin EV, Frank-Kamenetskii MD, Klinov DV. Anomalous Laterally Stressed Kinetically Trapped DNA Surface Conformations. NANO-MICRO LETTERS 2021; 13:130. [PMID: 34138333 PMCID: PMC8141082 DOI: 10.1007/s40820-021-00626-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2020] [Accepted: 02/09/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
DNA kinking is inevitable for the highly anisotropic 1D-1D electrostatic interaction with the one-dimensionally periodically charged surface. The double helical structure of the DNA kinetically trapped on positively charged monomolecular films comprising the lamellar templates is strongly laterally stressed and extremely perturbed at the nanometer scale. The DNA kinetic trapping is not a smooth 3D-> 2D conformational flattening but is a complex nonlinear in-plane mechanical response (bending, tensile and unzipping) driven by the physics beyond the scope of the applicability of the linear worm-like chain approximation. Up to now, the DNA molecule adsorbed on a surface was believed to always preserve its native structure. This belief implies a negligible contribution of lateral surface forces during and after DNA adsorption although their impact has never been elucidated. High-resolution atomic force microscopy was used to observe that stiff DNA molecules kinetically trapped on monomolecular films comprising one-dimensional periodically charged lamellar templates as a single layer or as a sublayer are oversaturated by sharp discontinuous kinks and can also be locally melted and supercoiled. We argue that kink/anti-kink pairs are induced by an overcritical lateral bending stress (> 30 pNnm) inevitable for the highly anisotropic 1D-1D electrostatic interaction of DNA and underlying rows of positive surface charges. In addition, the unexpected kink-inducing mechanical instability in the shape of the template-directed DNA confined between the positively charged lamellar sides is observed indicating the strong impact of helicity. The previously reported anomalously low values of the persistence length of the surface-adsorbed DNA are explained by the impact of the surface-induced low-scale bending. The sites of the local melting and supercoiling are convincingly introduced as other lateral stress-induced structural DNA anomalies by establishing a link with DNA high-force mechanics. The results open up the study in the completely unexplored area of the principally anomalous kinetically trapped DNA surface conformations in which the DNA local mechanical response to the surface-induced spatially modulated lateral electrostatic stress is essentially nonlinear. The underlying rich and complex in-plane nonlinear physics acts at the nanoscale beyond the scope of applicability of the worm-like chain approximation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Valery V Prokhorov
- Federal Research and Clinical Center of Physical-Chemical Medicine, Malaya Pirogovskaya, 1a, Moscow, 119435, Russian Federation.
- A.N.Frumkin Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry, RAS, Leninsky prospect 31, Moscow, 199071, Russian Federation.
| | - Nikolay A Barinov
- Federal Research and Clinical Center of Physical-Chemical Medicine, Malaya Pirogovskaya, 1a, Moscow, 119435, Russian Federation
| | - Kirill A Prusakov
- Federal Research and Clinical Center of Physical-Chemical Medicine, Malaya Pirogovskaya, 1a, Moscow, 119435, Russian Federation
- Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Institutskiy per. 9, Dolgoprudny, 141700, Moscow, Russian Federation
| | - Evgeniy V Dubrovin
- Federal Research and Clinical Center of Physical-Chemical Medicine, Malaya Pirogovskaya, 1a, Moscow, 119435, Russian Federation
- Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie gory, 1-2, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation
| | | | - Dmitry V Klinov
- Federal Research and Clinical Center of Physical-Chemical Medicine, Malaya Pirogovskaya, 1a, Moscow, 119435, Russian Federation.
- Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Institutskiy per. 9, Dolgoprudny, 141700, Moscow, Russian Federation.
| |
Collapse
|
31
|
Mills A, Gago F. Structural Landscape of the Transition from an ssDNA Dumbbell Plus Its Complementary Hairpin to a dsDNA Microcircle Via a Kissing Loop Intermediate. Molecules 2021; 26:molecules26103017. [PMID: 34069399 PMCID: PMC8158708 DOI: 10.3390/molecules26103017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2021] [Revised: 05/18/2021] [Accepted: 05/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The experimental construction of a double-stranded DNA microcircle of only 42 base pairs entailed a great deal of ingenuity and hard work. However, figuring out the three-dimensional structures of intermediates and the final product can be particularly baffling. Using a combination of model building and unrestrained molecular dynamics simulations in explicit solvent we have characterized the different DNA structures involved along the process. Our 3D models of the single-stranded DNA molecules provide atomic insight into the recognition event that must take place for the DNA bases in the cohesive tail of the hairpin to pair with their complementary bases in the single-stranded loops of the dumbbell. We propose that a kissing loop involving six base pairs makes up the core of the nascent dsDNA microcircle. We also suggest a feasible pathway for the hybridization of the remaining complementary bases and characterize the final covalently closed dsDNA microcircle as possessing two well-defined U-turns. Additional models of the pre-ligation complex of T4 DNA ligase with the DNA dumbbell and the post-ligation pre-release complex involving the same enzyme and the covalently closed DNA microcircle are shown to be compatible with enzyme recognition and gap ligation.
Collapse
|
32
|
Nakano M, Inaba M, Suehiro J. Rapid and low-cost amplicon visualization for nucleic acid amplification tests using magnetic microbeads. Analyst 2021; 146:2818-2824. [PMID: 33949385 DOI: 10.1039/d0an02349c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
This study presents a rapid and low-cost amplicon detection method in which amplicons are attached to magnetic microbeads, suspended in deionized water, and subjected to a magnetic field on a hydrophilic surface resulting in the circular agglomeration of amplicon-conjugated microbeads, visible to the naked eye.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Michihiko Nakano
- Faculty of Information Science and Electrical Engineering, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan.
| | - Masafumi Inaba
- Faculty of Information Science and Electrical Engineering, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan.
| | - Junya Suehiro
- Faculty of Information Science and Electrical Engineering, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan.
| |
Collapse
|
33
|
Nordén B, Brown T, Feng B. Mismatch detection in homologous strand exchange amplified by hydrophobic effects. Biopolymers 2021; 112:e23426. [PMID: 33780001 DOI: 10.1002/bip.23426] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2020] [Revised: 02/16/2021] [Accepted: 03/10/2021] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
In contrast to DNA replication and transcription where nucleotides are added and matched one by one, homologous recombination by DNA strand exchange tests whole sequences for complementarity, which requires elimination of mismatched yet thermodynamically stable intermediates. To understand the remarkable sequence specificity of homologous recombination, we have studied strand exchange between a 20-mer duplex containing one single mismatch (placed at varied positions) with the matching single strand in presence of poly(ethylene glycol) representing a semi-hydrophobic environment. A FRET-based assay shows that rates and yields of strand exchange from mismatched to matched strands rapidly increase with semi-hydrophobic co-solute concentration, contrasting previously observed general strand exchange accelerating effect of ethyl glycol ethers. We argue that this effect is not caused simply by DNA melting or solvent-induced changes of DNA conformation but is more complex involving several mechanisms. The catalytic effects, we propose, involve strand invasion facilitated by reduced duplex stability due to weakened base stacking ("longitudinal breathing"). Secondly, decreased water activity makes base-pair hydrogen bonds stronger, increasing the relative energy penalty per mismatch. Finally, unstacked mismatched bases (gaps) are stabilized through partly intercalated hydrophobic co-solvent molecules, assisting nucleation of strand invasion at the point of mismatch. We speculate that nature long ago discovered, and now exploits in various enzymes, that sequence recognition power of nucleic acids may be modulated in a hydrophobic environment.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Bengt Nordén
- Department of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Tom Brown
- Chemistry Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Bobo Feng
- Department of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
| |
Collapse
|
34
|
Beyerle ER, Dinpajooh M, Ji H, von Hippel PH, Marcus AH, Guenza MG. Dinucleotides as simple models of the base stacking-unstacking component of DNA 'breathing' mechanisms. Nucleic Acids Res 2021; 49:1872-1885. [PMID: 33503257 PMCID: PMC7913701 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkab015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2020] [Revised: 12/22/2020] [Accepted: 01/07/2021] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Regulatory protein access to the DNA duplex ‘interior’ depends on local DNA ‘breathing’ fluctuations, and the most fundamental of these are thermally-driven base stacking-unstacking interactions. The smallest DNA unit that can undergo such transitions is the dinucleotide, whose structural and dynamic properties are dominated by stacking, while the ion condensation, cooperative stacking and inter-base hydrogen-bonding present in duplex DNA are not involved. We use dApdA to study stacking-unstacking at the dinucleotide level because the fluctuations observed are likely to resemble those of larger DNA molecules, but in the absence of constraints introduced by cooperativity are likely to be more pronounced, and thus more accessible to measurement. We study these fluctuations with a combination of Molecular Dynamics simulations on the microsecond timescale and Markov State Model analyses, and validate our results by calculations of circular dichroism (CD) spectra, with results that agree well with the experimental spectra. Our analyses show that the CD spectrum of dApdA is defined by two distinct chiral conformations that correspond, respectively, to a Watson–Crick form and a hybrid form with one base in a Hoogsteen configuration. We find also that ionic structure and water orientation around dApdA play important roles in controlling its breathing fluctuations.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Eric R Beyerle
- Institute for Fundamental Science and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA
| | - Mohammadhasan Dinpajooh
- Institute for Fundamental Science and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA
| | - Huiying Ji
- Center for Optical, Molecular and Quantum Science and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA.,Institute of Molecular Biology and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA
| | - Peter H von Hippel
- Institute of Molecular Biology and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA
| | - Andrew H Marcus
- Center for Optical, Molecular and Quantum Science and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA.,Institute of Molecular Biology and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA
| | - Marina G Guenza
- Institute for Fundamental Science and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA.,Center for Optical, Molecular and Quantum Science and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA.,Institute of Molecular Biology and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA
| |
Collapse
|
35
|
Wang G, Li J. Review, analysis, and optimization of the CRISPR Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 system. MEDICINE IN DRUG DISCOVERY 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.medidd.2021.100080] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
|
36
|
Abstract
Desoxyribosenucleic acid, DNA, and cellulose molecules self-assemble in aqueous systems. This aggregation is the basis of the important functions of these biological macromolecules. Both DNA and cellulose have significant polar and nonpolar parts and there is a delicate balance between hydrophilic and hydrophobic interactions. The hydrophilic interactions related to net charges have been thoroughly studied and are well understood. On the other hand, the detailed roles of hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions have remained controversial. It is found that the contributions of hydrophobic interactions in driving important processes, like the double-helix formation of DNA and the aqueous dissolution of cellulose, are dominating whereas the net contribution from hydrogen bonding is small. In reviewing the roles of different interactions for DNA and cellulose it is useful to compare with the self-assembly features of surfactants, the simplest case of amphiphilic molecules. Pertinent information on the amphiphilic character of cellulose and DNA can be obtained from the association with surfactants, as well as on modifying the hydrophobic interactions by additives.
Collapse
|
37
|
Abstract
What were the physico-chemical forces that drove the origins of life? We discuss four major prebiotic 'discoveries': persistent sampling of chemical reaction space; sequence-encodable foldable catalysts; assembly of functional pathways; and encapsulation and heritability. We describe how a 'proteins-first' world gives plausible mechanisms. We note the importance of hydrophobic and polar compositions of matter in these advances.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- K. A. Dill
- Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
- Department of Chemistry, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
- Department Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
| | - L. Agozzino
- Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
| |
Collapse
|
38
|
Feng B, Sundin E, Lincoln P, Mårtensson AKF. DNA threading intercalation of enantiopure [Ru(phen) 2bidppz] 2+ induced by hydrophobic catalysis. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2021; 23:2238-2244. [PMID: 33439155 DOI: 10.1039/d0cp00845a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
The enantiomers of a novel mononuclear ruthenium(ii) complex [Ru(phen)2bidppz]2+ with an elongated dppz moiety were synthesized. Surprisingly, the complex showed no DNA intercalating capability in an aqueous environment. However, by the addition of water-miscible polyethylene glycol ether PEG-400, self-aggregation of the hydrophobic ruthenium(ii) complexes was counter-acted, thus strongly promoting the DNA intercalation binding mode. This mild alteration of the environment surrounding the DNA polymer does not damage or alter the DNA structure but instead enables more efficient binding characterization studies of potential DNA binding drugs.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Bobo Feng
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Kemigården 4, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden.
| | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
39
|
Response to crowded conditions reveals compact nucleus for amyloid formation of folded protein. QRB DISCOVERY 2021. [PMID: 37529678 PMCID: PMC10392690 DOI: 10.1017/qrd.2020.17] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Although the consequences of the crowded cell environments may affect protein folding, function and misfolding reactions, these processes are often studied in dilute solutions in vitro. We here used biophysical experiments to investigate the amyloid fibril formation process of the fish protein apo-β-parvalbumin in solvent conditions that mimic steric and solvation aspects of the in vivo milieu. Apo-β-parvalbumin is a folded protein that readily adopts an amyloid state via a nucleation–elongation mechanism. Aggregation experiments in the presence of macromolecular crowding agents (probing excluded volume, entropic effects) as well as small molecule osmolytes (probing solvation, enthalpic effects) revealed that both types of agents accelerate overall amyloid formation, but the elongation step was faster with macromolecular crowding agents but slower in the presence of osmolytes. The observations can be explained by the steric effects of excluded volume favoring assembled states and that amyloid nucleation does not involve monomer unfolding. In contrast, the solvation effects due to osmolyte presence promote nucleation but not elongation. Therefore, the amyloid-competent nuclei must be compact with less osmolytes excluded from the surface than either the folded monomers or amyloid fibers. We conclude that, in contrast to other amyloidogenic folded proteins, amyloid formation of apo-β-parvalbumin is accelerated by crowded cell-like conditions due to a nucleation process that does not involve large-scale protein unfolding.
Collapse
|
40
|
Gheorghiu A, Coveney PV, Arabi AA. The influence of base pair tautomerism on single point mutations in aqueous DNA. Interface Focus 2020; 10:20190120. [PMID: 33178413 PMCID: PMC7653342 DOI: 10.1098/rsfs.2019.0120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/24/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
The relationship between base pair hydrogen bond proton transfer and the rate of spontaneous single point mutations at ambient temperatures and pressures in aqueous DNA is investigated. By using an ensemble-based multiscale computational modelling method, statistically robust rates of proton transfer for the A:T and G:C base pairs within a solvated DNA dodecamer are calculated. Several different proton transfer pathways are observed within the same base pair. It is shown that, in G:C, the double proton transfer tautomer is preferred, while the single proton transfer process is favoured in A:T. The reported range of rate coefficients for double proton transfer is consistent with recent experimental data. Notwithstanding the approximately 1000 times more common presence of single proton transfer products from A:T, observationally there is bias towards G:C to A:T mutations in a wide range of living organisms. We infer that the double proton transfer reactions between G:C base pairs have a negligible contribution towards this bias for the following reasons: (i) the maximum half-life of the G*:C* tautomer is in the range of picoseconds, which is significantly smaller than the milliseconds it takes for DNA to unwind during replication, (ii) statistically, the majority of G*:C* tautomers revert back to their canonical forms through a barrierless process, and (iii) the thermodynamic instability of the tautomers with respect to the canonical base pairs. Through similar reasoning, we also deduce that proton transfer in the A:T base pair does not contribute to single point mutations in DNA.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- A Gheorghiu
- Centre for Computational Science, University College London, London, UK
| | - P V Coveney
- Centre for Computational Science, University College London, London, UK.,Informatics Institute, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - A A Arabi
- Centre for Computational Science, University College London, London, UK.,College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Biochemistry Department, United Arab Emirates University, PO Box 17666, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
| |
Collapse
|
41
|
Yuan Y, Ma Y, Huo D, Mills MJL, Wei J, Su W, Zhang R. Multipolar Description of Atom-Atom Electrostatic Interaction Energies in Single/Double-Stranded DNAs. J Phys Chem B 2020; 124:10089-10103. [PMID: 33138384 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.0c06757] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Molecular force field simulation is an effective method to explore the properties of DNA molecules in depth. Almost all current popular force fields calculate atom-atom electrostatic interaction energies for DNAs based on the atomic charge and dipole or quadrupole moments, without considering high-rank atomic multipole moments for more accurate electrostatics. Actually, the distribution of electrons around atomic nuclei is not spherically symmetric but is geometry dependent. In this work, a multipole expansion method that allows us to combine polarizability and anisotropy was applied. One single-stranded DNA and one double-stranded DNA were selected as pilot systems. Deoxynucleotides were cut out from pilot systems and capped by mimicking the original DNA environment. Atomic multipole moments were integrated instead of fixed-point charges to calculate atom-atom electrostatic energies to improve the accuracy of force fields for DNA simulations. Also, the applicability of modeling the behavior of both single-stranded and double-stranded DNAs was investigated. The calculation results indicated that the models can be transferred from pilot systems to test systems, which is of great significance for the development of future DNA force fields.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yongna Yuan
- School of Information Science & Engineering, Lanzhou University, No. 222 South Tianshui Road, Lanzhou 730000, China
| | - Yan Ma
- School of Information Science & Engineering, Lanzhou University, No. 222 South Tianshui Road, Lanzhou 730000, China
| | - Dongxu Huo
- School of Information Science & Engineering, Lanzhou University, No. 222 South Tianshui Road, Lanzhou 730000, China
| | - Matthew J L Mills
- 3M Corporate Research Analytical Laboratory, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55114, United States
| | - Jiaxuan Wei
- School of Information Science & Engineering, Lanzhou University, No. 222 South Tianshui Road, Lanzhou 730000, China
| | - Wei Su
- School of Information Science & Engineering, Lanzhou University, No. 222 South Tianshui Road, Lanzhou 730000, China
| | - Ruisheng Zhang
- School of Information Science & Engineering, Lanzhou University, No. 222 South Tianshui Road, Lanzhou 730000, China
| |
Collapse
|
42
|
Abstract
AbstractThe human protein Rad51 is double-edged in cancer contexts: on one hand, preventing tumourigenesis by eliminating potentially carcinogenic DNA damage and, on the other, promoting tumours by introducing new mutations. Understanding mechanistic details of Rad51 in homologous recombination (HR) and repair could facilitate design of novel methods, including CRISPR, for Rad51-targeted cancer treatment. Despite extensive research, however, we do not yet understand the mechanism of HR in sufficient detail, partly due to complexity, a large number of Rad51 protein units being involved in the exchange of long DNA segments. Another reason for lack of understanding could be that current recognition models of DNA interactions focus only on hydrogen bond-directed base pair formation. A more complete model may need to include, for example, the kinetic effects of DNA base stacking and unstacking (‘longitudinal breathing’). These might explain how Rad51 can recognize sequence identity of DNA over several bases long stretches with high accuracy, despite the fact that a single base mismatch could be tolerated if we consider only the hydrogen bond energy. We here propose that certain specific hydrophobic effects, recently discovered destabilizing stacking of nucleobases, may play a central role in this context for the function of Rad51.
Collapse
|
43
|
The role of fibril structure and surface hydrophobicity in secondary nucleation of amyloid fibrils. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:25272-25283. [PMID: 33004626 PMCID: PMC7568274 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2002956117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Alzheimer’s disease affects a rapidly growing number of individuals worldwide. Key unresolved questions relate to the onset and propagation of the disease, linked to the self-assembly of amyloid β peptide into fibrillar and smaller aggregates. This study investigates the propagation of aggregates of amyloid β peptide and asks whether hydrophobic molecular features observed on the fibril surface correlate with its ability to catalyze the formation of new aggregates. This question is motivated by the associated formation of intermediate forms that are toxic to neuronal cells. The results imply that surface catalysis is independent of surface details but requires that the monomers that form the new aggregate can adopt the structure of the parent aggregate without steric clashes. Crystals, nanoparticles, and fibrils catalyze the generation of new aggregates on their surface from the same type of monomeric building blocks as the parent assemblies. This secondary nucleation process can be many orders of magnitude faster than primary nucleation. In the case of amyloid fibrils associated with Alzheimer’s disease, this process leads to the multiplication and propagation of aggregates, whereby short-lived oligomeric intermediates cause neurotoxicity. Understanding the catalytic activity is a fundamental goal in elucidating the molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer’s and associated diseases. Here we explore the role of fibril structure and hydrophobicity by asking whether the V18, A21, V40, and A42 side chains which are exposed on the Aβ42 fibril surface as continuous hydrophobic patches play a role in secondary nucleation. Single, double, and quadruple serine substitutions were made. Kinetic analyses of aggregation data at multiple monomer concentrations reveal that all seven mutants retain the dominance of secondary nucleation as the main mechanism of fibril proliferation. This finding highlights the generality of secondary nucleation and its independence of the detailed molecular structure. Cryo-electron micrographs reveal that the V18S substitution causes fibrils to adopt a distinct morphology with longer twist distance than variants lacking this substitution. Self- and cross-seeding data show that surface catalysis is only efficient between peptides of identical morphology, indicating a templating role of secondary nucleation with structural conversion at the fibril surface. Our findings thus provide clear evidence that the propagation of amyloid fibril strains is possible even in systems dominated by secondary nucleation rather than fragmentation.
Collapse
|
44
|
Sutherland BP, LeValley PJ, Bischoff DJ, Kloxin AM, Kloxin CJ. Sequence-defined vinyl sulfonamide click nucleic acids (VS-CNAs) and their assembly into dynamically responsive materials. Chem Commun (Camb) 2020; 56:11263-11266. [PMID: 32820777 PMCID: PMC7530108 DOI: 10.1039/d0cc04235h] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Synthetic DNA analogues are of great interest for their application in information storage, therapeutics, and nanostructured materials, yet are often limited in scalability. Vinyl sulfonamide click nucleic acids (VS-CNAs) have been developed to overcome this limitation using the highly efficient thiol-Michael 'click' reaction. Utilizing all four nucleobases, sequence-defined click nucleic acids (CNAs) were synthesized using a simple and scalabale solution-phase approach. Employing a polyethylene glycol (PEG) support, synthesis of the CNA sequence, GATTACA, was achieved in high yields. CNA crosslinked hydrogels were assembled using multiarm PEG-CNAs resulting in materials that dynamically respond to temperature, strain, and competitive sequences.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Bryan P Sutherland
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA.
| | - Paige J LeValley
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA
| | - Derek J Bischoff
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA.
| | - April M Kloxin
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA. and Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA
| | - Christopher J Kloxin
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA. and Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA
| |
Collapse
|
45
|
Gutiérrez-Flores J, Hernández-Lemus E, Cortés-Guzmán F, Ramos E. Do weak interactions affect the biological behavior of DNA? A DFT study of CpG island-like chains. J Mol Model 2020; 26:266. [PMID: 32918237 DOI: 10.1007/s00894-020-04501-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2020] [Accepted: 08/03/2020] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
The origin, stability, and contribution to the formation of noncovalent interactions, such as hydrogen bonds and π - π stacking, have been already widely discussed. However, there are few discussions about the relevance of these weak interactions in DNA performance. In this work, we seek to shed light on the effect of hydrogen bonds and π - π stacking interactions on the biological behavior of DNA through the description of these intermolecular forces in CpG island-like (GC-rich) chains. Furthermore, we made some comparisons with TATA box-like (TA-rich) chains in order to describe hydrogen bond and π - π stacking interactions as a function of the DNA sequence. For hydrogen bonds, we found that there is not a significant effect related to the number of base pairs. Whereas for π - π stacking interactions, the energy tended to decrease as the number of base pairs increased. We observed anticooperative effects for both hydrogen bonds and π - π stacking interactions. These results are in contrast with those of TATA box-like chains since cooperative and additive effects were found for both hydrogen bonds and π - π stacking, respectively. Based on the chemical hardness and density of states, we can conclude that proteins may interact easier with GC-rich chains. We conclude that regardless of the chain length, a protein could interact more easily with these genomics regions because the π - π stacking energies did not increase as a function of the number of base pairs, making, for the first time, a first approximation of the influence of noncovalent interaction on DNA behavior. We did all this work by means of DFT framework included in the DMol3 code (M06-L/DNP). Graphical Abstract Cartoon representation of how nocovalent interactions affect the interaction of DNA with a protein, i.e., how hydrogen bond and π - π stacking interactions influence the biological behavior of DNA.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jorge Gutiérrez-Flores
- Instituto de Investigaciones en Materiales, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito Exterior s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, Coyoacán, 04510, CDMX, México
| | | | - Fernando Cortés-Guzmán
- Instituto de Química, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito Exterior s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, Coyoacán, 04510, CDMX, México
| | - Estrella Ramos
- Instituto de Investigaciones en Materiales, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito Exterior s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, Coyoacán, 04510, CDMX, México.
| |
Collapse
|
46
|
Tang S, Qi T, Yao Y, Tang L, Chen W, Chen T, Shen W, Kong D, Shi HW, Liu T, Lee HK. Magnetic Three-Phase Single-Drop Microextraction for Rapid Amplification of the Signals of DNA and MicroRNA Analysis. Anal Chem 2020; 92:12290-12296. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.0c01936] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Sheng Tang
- School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212003, Jiangsu Province, PR China
| | - Tong Qi
- School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212003, Jiangsu Province, PR China
| | - Yao Yao
- School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212003, Jiangsu Province, PR China
| | - Liangxiu Tang
- School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212003, Jiangsu Province, PR China
| | - Wenhui Chen
- School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212003, Jiangsu Province, PR China
| | - Tianyu Chen
- School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212003, Jiangsu Province, PR China
| | - Wei Shen
- School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212003, Jiangsu Province, PR China
| | - Dezhao Kong
- School of Grain Science and Technology, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212003, Jiangsu Province, PR China
| | - Hai-Wei Shi
- Jiangsu Institute for Food and Drug Control, Nanjing 210019, Jiangsu Province, PR China
- Key Laboratory for Impurity Profile of Chemical Drugs, National Medical Products Administration, Nanjing 210019, Jiangsu Province, PR China
| | - Tianlong Liu
- Department of Pharmacy, Xuzhou Cancer Hospital, Xuzhou 221000, Jiangsu Province, PR China
| | - Hian Kee Lee
- Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, 3 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117543, Singapore
| |
Collapse
|
47
|
Martins ML, Bordallo HN, Arrese-Igor S, Alegría A, Colmenero de Leon J. Effect of Paclitaxel in the Water Dynamics of MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cells Revealed by Dielectric Spectroscopy. ACS OMEGA 2020; 5:18602-18607. [PMID: 32775862 PMCID: PMC7407532 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.0c00897] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2020] [Accepted: 06/25/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Using dielectric spectroscopy experiments performed at multiple temperatures and frequency ranges, we demonstrate how the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel changes the dynamic properties of water in a breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). From the measured data, we present evidence that treatment with paclitaxel leads to a slight increase in activation energy in a relaxation related to bulk-like water. More importantly, we also observe that paclitaxel changes the constraining imposed by the biological interfaces on hydration water, whose single-particle dynamics becomes slower and with higher activation energy. These variations are only observable after freezing the dynamics from other cellular components, such as proteins and DNAs, regardless of the state of the cells, that is, treated or not treated or even if the cells are no longer viable. Therefore, changes in water dynamics could be detected prior to those related to the global dynamics within the cellular environment.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Murillo L. Martins
- System
and Production Engineering Graduate Program, Pontifical Catholic University of Goias, 74605-010 Goiania, Brazil
| | - Heloisa N. Bordallo
- Niels
Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
- European
Spallation Source, P.O. Box 176, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden
| | - Silvia Arrese-Igor
- Centro
de Física de Materiales, Centro Mixto
CSIC-UPV/EHU, Paseo Manuel
Lardizabal 5, 20018 San Sebastián, Spain
| | - Angel Alegría
- Centro
de Física de Materiales, Centro Mixto
CSIC-UPV/EHU, Paseo Manuel
Lardizabal 5, 20018 San Sebastián, Spain
| | - Juan Colmenero de Leon
- Centro
de Física de Materiales, Centro Mixto
CSIC-UPV/EHU, Paseo Manuel
Lardizabal 5, 20018 San Sebastián, Spain
| |
Collapse
|
48
|
Xiao F, Chen Z, Wei Z, Tian L. Hydrophobic Interaction: A Promising Driving Force for the Biomedical Applications of Nucleic Acids. ADVANCED SCIENCE (WEINHEIM, BADEN-WURTTEMBERG, GERMANY) 2020; 7:2001048. [PMID: 32832360 PMCID: PMC7435255 DOI: 10.1002/advs.202001048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2020] [Revised: 05/28/2020] [Indexed: 05/13/2023]
Abstract
The comprehensive understanding and proper use of supramolecular interactions have become critical for the development of functional materials, and so is the biomedical application of nucleic acids (NAs). Relatively rare attention has been paid to hydrophobic interaction compared with hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interaction of NAs. However, hydrophobic interaction shows some unique properties, such as high tunability for application interest, minimal effect on NA functionality, and sensitivity to external stimuli. Therefore, the widespread use of hydrophobic interaction has promoted the evolution of NA-based biomaterials in higher-order self-assembly, drug/gene-delivery systems, and stimuli-responsive systems. Herein, the recent progress of NA-based biomaterials whose fabrications or properties are highly determined by hydrophobic interactions is summarized. 1) The hydrophobic interaction of NA itself comes from the accumulation of base-stacking forces, by which the NAs with certain base compositions and chain lengths show properties similar to thermal-responsive polymers. 2) In conjugation with hydrophobic molecules, NA amphiphiles show interesting self-assembly structures with unique properties in many new biosensing and therapeutic strategies. 3) The working-mechanisms of some NA-based complex materials are also dependent on hydrophobic interactions. Moreover, in recent attempts, NA amphiphiles have been applied in organizing macroscopic self-assembly of DNA origami and controlling the cell-cell interactions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Fan Xiao
- Department of Materials Science and EngineeringSouthern University of Science and Technology1088 Xueyuan Blvd.Nanshan DistrictShenzhenGuangdong518055P. R. China
- School of Materials Science and EngineeringHarbin Institute of TechnologyNangang DistrictHarbin150001P. R. China
| | - Zhe Chen
- Department of Materials Science and EngineeringSouthern University of Science and Technology1088 Xueyuan Blvd.Nanshan DistrictShenzhenGuangdong518055P. R. China
- Cancer Centre and Centre of ReproductionDevelopment and AgingFaculty of Health SciencesUniversity of MacauTaipaMacau999078P. R. China
| | - Zixiang Wei
- Department of Materials Science and EngineeringSouthern University of Science and Technology1088 Xueyuan Blvd.Nanshan DistrictShenzhenGuangdong518055P. R. China
- Cancer Centre and Centre of ReproductionDevelopment and AgingFaculty of Health SciencesUniversity of MacauTaipaMacau999078P. R. China
| | - Leilei Tian
- Department of Materials Science and EngineeringSouthern University of Science and Technology1088 Xueyuan Blvd.Nanshan DistrictShenzhenGuangdong518055P. R. China
| |
Collapse
|
49
|
Abstract
Base pairing plays a pivotal role in DNA functions and replication fidelity. But while the complementarity between Watson-Crick matched bases is generally believed to arise from the different number of hydrogen bonds in G|C pairs versus A|T, the energetics of these interactions are heavily renormalized by the aqueous solvent. Employing large-scale Monte Carlo simulations, we have extracted the solvent contribution to the free energy for canonical and some noncanonical and stacked base pairs. For all of them, the solvent's contribution to the base pairing free energy is exclusively destabilizing. While the direct hydrogen bonding interactions in the G|C pair is much stronger than A|T, the thermodynamic resistance produced by the solvent also pushes back much stronger against G|C compared to A|T, generating an only ∼1 kcal/mol free energy difference between them. We have profiled the density of water molecules in the solvent adjacent to the bases and observed a "freezing" behavior where waters are recruited into the gap between the bases to compensate for the unsatisfied hydrogen bonds between them. A very small number of water molecules that are associated with the Watson-Crick donor/acceptor atoms turn out to be responsible for the majority of the solvent's thermodynamic resistance to base pairing. The absence or presence of these near-field waters can be used to enhance fidelity during DNA replication.
Collapse
|
50
|
Völker J, Plum GE, Breslauer KJ. Heat Capacity Changes (Δ Cp) for Interconversions between Differentially-Ordered DNA States within Physiological Temperature Domains: Implications for Biological Regulatory Switches. J Phys Chem B 2020; 124:5614-5625. [PMID: 32531155 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.0c04065] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Knowledge of differences in heat capacity changes (ΔCp) between biopolymer states provides essential information about the temperature dependence of the thermodynamic properties of these states, while also revealing insights into the nature of the forces that drive the formation of functional and dysfunctional biopolymer "order." In contrast to proteins, for nucleic acids there is a dearth of direct experimental determination of this information-rich parameter, a deficiency that compromises interpretations of the ever-increasing thermodynamic analyses of nucleic acid properties; particularly as they relate to differential nucleic acid (meta)stability states and their potential biological functions. Here we demonstrate that such heat capacity differences, in fact, exist not only between traditionally measured native to fully unfolded (assumed "random coil") DNA states, but also between competing order-to-order transformations. We illustrate the experimental approach by measuring the heat capacity change between "native"/ordered, sequence homologous, "isomeric" DNA states that differ in conformation but not sequence. Importantly, these heat capacity differences occur within biologically relevant temperature ranges. In short, we describe a new and general method to measure the value of such heat capacity differences anywhere in experimentally accessible conformational and temperature space; in this case, between two metastable bulge loop states, implicated in DNA expansion diseases, and their competing, fully paired, thermodynamically more stable duplex states. This measurement reveals a ΔCp of 61 ± 7 cal molbp -1 K -1. Such heat capacity differences between competing DNA "native" ensemble states must be considered when evaluating equilibria between different DNA "ordered" conformations, including the assessment of the differential stabilizing forces and potential biological functions of competing DNA "structured" motifs.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jens Völker
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 610 Taylor Road, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, United States
| | - G Eric Plum
- UNICON International, Inc. 241 Outerbelt Street, Columbus, Ohio 43213, United States
| | - Kenneth J Breslauer
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 610 Taylor Road, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, United States.,The Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901, United States
| |
Collapse
|