Temperature dependence of the gel electrophoretic mobility of superhelical DNA

RGEN-seq for highly sensitive amplification-free screen of off-target sites of gene editors

Sensitive detection of off-target sites produced by gene editing nucleases is crucial for developing reliable gene therapy platforms. Although several biochemical assays for the characterization of nuclease off-target effects have been recently published, significant technical and methodological issues still remain. Of note, existing methods rely on PCR amplification, tagging, and affinity purification which can introduce bias, contaminants, sample loss through handling, etc. Here we describe a sensitive, PCR-free next-generation sequencing method (RGEN-seq) for unbiased detection of double-stranded breaks generated by RNA-guided CRISPR-Cas9 endonuclease. Through use of novel sequencing adapters, the RGEN-Seq method saves time, simplifies workflow, and removes genomic coverage bias and gaps associated with PCR and/or other enrichment procedures. RGEN-seq is fully compatible with existing off-target detection software; moreover, the unbiased nature of RGEN-seq offers a robust foundation for relating assigned DNA cleavage scores to propensity for off-target mutations in cells. A detailed comparison of RGEN-seq with other off-target detection methods is provided using a previously characterized set of guide RNAs.

Extrusion of an imperfect palindrome to a cruciform in superhelical DNA: complete determination of energetics using a statistical mechanical model

We present a detailed study of the extrusion of an imperfect palindrome, derived from the terminal regions of vaccinia virus DNA and contained in a superhelical plasmid, into a cruciform containing bulged bases. We monitor the course of extrusion by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis experiments as a function of temperature and linking number. We find that extrusion pauses at partially extruded states as negative superhelicity increases. To understand the course of extrusion with changes in linking number, DeltaLk, we present a rigorous semiempirical statistical mechanical analysis that includes complete coupling between DeltaLk, cruciform extrusion, formation of extrahelical bases, and temperature-dependent denaturation. The imperfections in the palindrome are sequentially incorporated into the cruciform arms as hairpin loops, single unpaired bases, and complex local regions containing several unpaired bases. We analyze the results to determine the free energies, enthalpies and entropies of formation of all local structures involved in extrusion. We find that, for each unpaired structure, the DeltaG, DeltaH and DeltaS of formation are all approximately proportional to the number of unpaired bases contained therein. This surprising result holds regardless of the arrangement or composition of unpaired bases within a particular structure. Imperfections have major effects on the overall energetics of cruciform extrusion and on the course of this transition. In particular, the extent of the DeltaLk change necessary to extrude an imperfect palindrome is considerably greater than that required for extrusion of the underlying perfect palindrome. Our analysis also suggests that, at higher temperatures, significant denaturation at the base of an imperfect cruciform can successfully compete with extension of the cruciform arms.

Winding of the DNA helix by divalent metal ions

When supercoiled pBR322 DNA was relaxed at 0 or 22 degrees C by topoisomerase I in the presence of the divalent cations Ca2+, Mn2+ or Co2+, the resulting distributions of topoisomers observed at 22 degrees C had positive supercoils, up to an average delta Lk value of +8.6 (for Ca2+at 0 degrees C), corresponding to an overwinding of the helix by 0.7 degrees/bp. An increase of the divalent cation concentration in the reaction mixture above 50 mM completely reversed the effect. When such ions were present in agarose electrophoresis gels, they caused a relaxation of positively supercoiled DNA molecules, and thus allowed a separation of strongly positively supercoiled topoisomers. The effect of divalent cations on DNA adds a useful tool for the study of DNA topoisomers, for the generation as well as separation of positively supercoiled DNA molecules.

DNA supercoiling and transcription: topological coupling of promoters

DNA supercoiling is a consequence of the double-stranded nature of DNA. When a linear DNA molecule is ligated into a covalently closed circle, the two strands become intertwined like the links of a chain, and will remain so unless one of the strands is broken. The number of times one strand is linked with the other is described by a fundamental property of DNA supercoiling, the linking number (Lk).

Condensation of supercoiled DNA induced by MnCl2

Multivalent cations condense DNA in vitro, but it had been thought that a valence of at least + 3 was required in aqueous solution. We have found that Mn2+ can produce toroidal condensates of supercoiled plasmid DNA, but not of linearized plasmid. Mg2+ does not cause condensation, and neither MgCl2 nor NaCl can negate the effect of MnCl2, indicating that the condensation mechanism with Mn is not primarily electrostatic. Supercoiled MnDNA is more extensively digested than the linear form by S1 nuclease. Supercoiling appears to cooperate with Mn2+ in stabilizing helix distortions and also provides a "pressure" that enhances lateral association.

Large-scale opening of A + T rich regions within supercoiled DNA molecules is suppressed by salt

Large-scale cooperative helix opening has been previously observed in A + T rich sequences contained in supercoiled DNA molecules at elevated temperatures. Since it is well known that helix melting of linear DNA is suppressed by addition of salt, we have investigated the effects of added salts on opening transitions in negatively supercoiled DNA circles. We have found that localised large-scale stable melting in supercoiled DNA is strongly suppressed by modest elevation of salt concentration, in the range 10 to 30 mM sodium. This has been shown in a number of independent ways: 1. The temperature required to promote cruciform extrusion by the pathway that proceeds via the coordinate large-scale opening of an A + T rich region surrounding the inverted repeat (the C-type pathway, first observed in the extrusion of the ColE1 inverted repeat) is elevated by addition of salt. The temperature required for extrusion was increased by about 4 deg for an addition of 10 mM NaCl. 2. A + T rich regions in supercoiled DNA exhibit hyperreactivity towards osmium tetroxide as the temperature is raised; this reactivity is strongly suppressed by the addition of salt. At low salt concentrations of added NaCl (10 mM) we observe that there is an approximate equivalence between reducing the salt concentration, and the elevation of temperature. Above 30 mM NaCl the reactivity of the ColE1 sequences is completely supressed at normal temperatures. 3. Stable helix opening transitions in A + T rich sequences may be observed with elevated temperature, using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis; these transitions become progressively harder to demonstrate with the addition of salt. With the addition of low concentrations of salt, the onset of opening transitions shifts to higher superhelix density, and by 30 mM NaCl or more, no transitions are visible up to a temperature of 50 degrees C. Statistical mechanical simulation of the data indicate that the cooperativity free energy for the transition is unaltered by addition of salt, but that the free energy cost for opening each basepair is increased. These results demonstrate that addition of even relatively low concentrations of salt strongly suppress the large-scale helix opening of A + T rich regions, even at high levels of negative supercoiling. While the opening at low salt concentrations may reveal a propensity for such transitions, spontaneous opening is very unlikely under physiological conditions of salt, temperature and superhelicity, and we conclude that proteins will therefore be required to facilitate opening transitions in cellular DNA.

Liquid-crystalline mesophases of plasmid DNA in bacteria

Bacterial plasmids may often reach a copy number larger than 1000 per cell, corresponding to a total amount of DNA that may exceed the amount of DNA within the bacterial chromosome. This observation highlights the problem of cellular accommodation of large amounts of closed-circular nucleic acids, whose interwound conformation offers negligible DNA compaction. As determined by x-ray scattering experiments conducted on intact bacteria, supercoiled plasmids segregate within the cells into dense clusters characterized by a long-range order. In vitro studies performed at physiological DNA concentrations indicated that interwound DNA spontaneously forms liquid crystalline phases whose macroscopic structural properties are determined by the features of the molecular supercoiling. Because these features respond to cellular factors, DNA supercoiling may provide a sensitive regulatory link between cellular parameters and the packaging modes of interwound DNA in vivo.

Melting characteristics of highly supercoiled DNA

The effect of high supercoil densities on the melting characteristics of a supercoiled DNA has been studied. It is found that although the melting temperature increases abruptly on converting a linear DNA merely into the relaxed circular form, it falls back substantially at high supercoil densities. It is further predicted, in such cases, that the number of melted base pairs should be significantly enhanced even at the physiological temperature, which may facilitate the binding of other molecules to the highly supercoiled DNA.

Local supercoil-stabilized DNA structures

The DNA double helix exhibits local sequence-dependent polymorphism at the level of the single base pair and dinucleotide step. Curvature of the DNA molecule occurs in DNA regions with a specific type of nucleotide sequence periodicities. Negative supercoiling induces in vitro local nucleotide sequence-dependent DNA structures such as cruciforms, left-handed DNA, multistranded structures, etc. Techniques based on chemical probes have been proposed that make it possible to study DNA local structures in cells. Recent results suggest that the local DNA structures observed in vitro exist in the cell, but their occurrence and structural details are dependent on the DNA superhelical density in the cell and can be related to some cellular processes.

Paranemic structures of DNA and their role in DNA unwinding

A DNA structure is defined as paranemic if the participating strands can be separated without mutual rotation of the opposite strands. The experimental methods employed to detect paranemic, unwound, DNA regions is described, including probing by single-strand specific nucleases (SNN), conformation-specific chemical probes, topoisomer analysis, NMR, and other physical methods. The available evidence for the following paranemic structures is surveyed: single-stranded DNA, slippage structures, cruciforms, alternating B-Z regions, triplexes (H-DNA), paranemic duplexes and RNA, protein-stabilized paranemic DNA. The problem of DNA unwinding during gene copying processes is analyzed; the possibility that extended paranemic DNA regions are transiently formed during replication, transcription, and recombination is considered, and the evidence supporting the participation of paranemic DNA forms in genes committed to or undergoing copying processes is summarized.

Chromatin reconstitution on small DNA rings. III. Histone H5 dependence of DNA supercoiling in the nucleosome

Mononucleosomes were reconstituted on small DNA rings in the presence of histone H5 and relaxed to an equilibrium using calf thymus topoisomerase I. DNA products, when compared to the equilibria observed with the same minicircles in the absence of histones, showed that a linking number reduction of 1.6 to 1.7 was associated with this reconstitution, in contrast with the 1.1 to 1.2 figure reported in our recent study of the H5-free nucleosome. Gel electrophoretic properties and electron microscopic visualization of the nucleosomes suggest a correlation between this increase and a further wrapping of the DNA around the histone core from less than 1.5 turns of the superhelix in the absence of H5, to close to two turns in its presence. Implications for DNA topology in chromatin are discussed.

Thermal energy suppresses mutational defects in DNA unwinding at a yeast replication origin

Yeast replication origins contain a DNA sequence element whose biological activity correlates with hypersensitivity to single-strand-specific nucleases in negatively supercoiled plasmids. By using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of plasmid topoisomers, we demonstrate that thermodynamically stable origin unwinding accounts for the nuclease hypersensitivity and, furthermore, that increased thermal energy facilitates stable origin unwinding in vitro. In living cells, increased thermal energy can suppress origin mutations that raise the free-energy cost for unwinding the nuclease-hypersensitive element. Specifically, mutational defects in autonomously replicating sequence (ARS)-mediated plasmid replication are less severe in cells grown at 30 degrees C as compared to 23 degrees C. Our findings indicate that the energetics of DNA unwinding at the nuclease-hypersensitive element are biologically important. We call the nuclease-hypersensitive sequence the DNA unwinding element (DUE) and propose that it serves as the entry site for yeast replication enzymes into the DNA helix.

Stable DNA unwinding, not "breathing," accounts for single-strand-specific nuclease hypersensitivity of specific A+T-rich sequences

A long A+T-rich sequence in supercoiled pBR322 DNA is hypersensitive to single-strand-specific nucleases at 37 degrees C but not at reduced temperature. The basis for the nuclease hypersensitivity is stable DNA unwinding as revealed by (i) the same temperature dependence for hypersensitivity and for stable unwinding of plasmid topoisomers after two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, (ii) preferential nuclease digestion of stably unwound topoisomers, and (iii) quantitative nicking of stably unwound topoisomers in the A+T-rich region. Nuclease hypersensitivity of A+T-rich sequences is hierarchical, and either deletion of the primary site or a sufficient increase in the free energy of supercoiling leads to enhanced nicking at an alternative A+T-rich site. The hierarchy of nuclease hypersensitivity reflects a hierarchy in the free energy required for unwinding naturally occurring sequences in supercoiled DNA. This finding, along with the known hypersensitivity of replication origins and transcriptional regulatory regions, has important implications for using single-strand-specific nucleases in DNA structure-function studies.

A domain that assumes a Z-conformation includes a specific deletion in some cloned variants of a complex satellite

Sequence analyses show that deletions of 10 and 12 bp occur at homologous sites in a domain that is rich in alternating purines and pyrimidines (Pu/Py) in B42 and EXT, two cloned variants of a complex satellite DNA. A 3-bp deletion occurs 27 bp upstream from the site of the specific deletions in B42 and RU, a third cloned satellite variant that has not suffered the 10-bp deletion. Under torsional stress, the Pu/Py-rich domain adopts a Z-conformation as shown by (i) inhibition of cutting at a BssHII site that accounts for 2/5 of a 15-bp tract of pure Pu/Py in the domain; (ii) binding of polyclonal and monoclonal anti-Z-DNA antibodies to the domain; and (iii) antibody stabilization and subsequent relaxation of the Z-region.

Structural interconversion of alternating purine-pyrimidine inverted repeats cloned in supercoiled plasmids

Two self complementary oligonucleotides, T(GC)4AT(GC)4ACATG and C(GC)2(AT)5 (GC)3ATG, were synthesized and cloned into plasmids. Negative supercoiling causes a structural transition in the primary helix of both inserts. The first sequence converts into the left-handed helix, whereas the second sequence undergoes a transition into a cruciform or a Z-type structure depending on the experimental conditions employed. This has been deduced from the mapping of S1 nuclease sensitive sites, OsO4-sensitive sites, DEP modification pattern and relaxation studies. In addition, the differential effect of 5-cytosine methylation and binding of the AT-specific drug distamycin on these transitions further supports this interpretation. Thus, it is demonstrated, that the same sequence which is both inverted repeat and alternating purine-pyrimidine type may adopt either the left-handed conformation or the cruciform structure in response to the superhelical stress. Formation of the Z-type helix can be transmitted through the d(AT)n region which is 10 bp in length.

Early melting of supercoiled DNA

Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (formamide with urea) has been used to study the melting of supercoiled DNA. A linear gradient of denaturant concentration proportional to a 25 degrees C linear increase of temperature (Teff) from the left to the right edge of the gel was created perpendicular to DNA migration. The mobility of supercoiled DNA molecules was shown to drop to the level of relaxed molecules a long way (5-30 degrees C) before linear DNA began to melt. The further increase of Teff, including the melting range for linear molecules, caused no appreciable changes in the mobility of relaxed molecules. The transition curves are S-shaped for all the topoisomers, and an increase of superhelicity shifts the transition towards lower Teff values. The analysis of the results indicates that the observed relaxation of superhelical molecules is due to denatured region forming in them, their size increasing with the topoisomer number.

Positive supercoiling catalysed in vitro by ATP-dependent topoisomerase from Desulfurococcus amylolyticus

A topoisomerase capable of introducing positive supercoils into closed-circular DNA has been isolated from the extremely thermophilic anaerobic archaebacterium Desulfurococcus amylolyticus. This polypeptide has an Mr of 135,000, as determined by electrophoresis under denaturing conditions. The enzyme is active in the temperature range from 65 degrees C to 100 degrees C and catalyzes positive supercoiling both in negatively supercoiled DNA and in relaxed DNA. These reactions require the presence of ATP. The enzyme's action on a single topoisomer has shown the linking number to increase by an integral number upon the relaxation of negative supercoils and the introduction of positive ones. This means that the reverse gyrase from D. amylolyticus is a type I topoisomerase. The presence of an extended AT sequence within the closed-circular DNA enhances the activity of the Desulfurococcus topoisomerase. Even though the enzyme is isolated from a strictly anaerobic bacterium, it is fully active in the presence of oxygen.

Applications of the twist difference to DNA structural analysis

The twist is a fundamental geometric property of nucleic acids. Calculation of the twist in the most general case requires detailed specification of the three-dimensional path of each strand, but many important cases may be analyzed by considering only the twist difference. If C1, C2, and C3 are three distinct space curves, the twist difference about C1 is defined as Tw(C3, C1) - Tw(C2, C1). We show here that this difference measures the rotation of the correspondence surface joining C1 to C2 about the correspondence surface joining C1 to C3. This result has application to DNA containing local nonuniformities, such as denatured regions, cruciforms, and other altered structures. It also facilitates the calculation of twist for three-stranded structures, including D-loops in mitochondrial DNA and replication and transcription intermediates. The twist difference may also be used to simplify greatly the analysis of twist changes in duplex DNA due to winding on surfaces, such as histones and certain enzymes. In such cases the strand-axis twist of DNA divides into two independent terms. The first term arises from the twist of the local reference frame, and the second arises from the rotation of either strand about the duplex axis as measured in the local reference frame. Twist changes consequent to nucleosome winding, for example, arise from the twist of the nucleosome axis, a straight line, about the DNA axis plus the rotation of either strand of the DNA about its axis in the reference frame of the cylinder.

DNA unwinding and inhibition of mouse leukemia L1210 DNA topoisomerase I by intercalators

The DNA unwinding effects of some 9-aminoacridine derivatives were compared under reaction conditions that could be used to study drug-induced topoisomerase II inhibition. An assay was designed to determine drug-induced DNA unwinding by using L1210 topoisomerase I. 9-aminoacridines could be ranked by decreasing unwinding potency: compound C greater than or equal to 9-aminoacridine greater than o-AMSA greater than or equal to compound A greater than compound B greater than m-AMSA. Ethidium bromide was more potent than any of the 9-aminoacridines. This assay is a fast and simple method to compare DNA unwinding effects of intercalators. It led to the definition of a drug intrinsic unwinding constant (k). An additional finding was that all 9-aminoacridines and ethidium bromide inhibited L1210 topoisomerase I. Enzyme inhibition was detectable at low enzyme concentrations (less than or equal to 1 unit) and when the kinetics of topoisomerase I-mediated DNA relaxation was studied. Topoisomerase I inhibition was not associated with DNA swivelling or cleavage.

Cruciform extrusion in plasmids bearing the replicative intermediate configuration of a poxvirus telomere

The transition from lineform DNA to cruciform DNA (cruciformation) within the cloned telomere sequences of the Leporipoxvirus Shope fibroma virus (SFV) has been studied. The viral telomere sequences have been cloned in recombination-deficient Escherichia coli as a 322 base-pair, imperfect palindromic insert in pUC13. The inverted repeat configuration is equivalent to the arrangement of the telomere structures observed within viral DNA replicative intermediates. A major cruciform structure in the purified recombinant plasmid has been identified and mapped using, as probes, the enzymes AflII, nuclease S1 and bacteriophage T7 endonuclease I. It was extruded from the central axis of the cloned viral inverted repeat and, by unrestricted branch migration, attained a size commensurate with the superhelical density of the plasmid molecule at native superhelical densities. This major cruciform extrusion event was the only detectable duplex DNA perturbation, induced by negative superhelical torsion, in the insert viral sequences. No significant steady-state pool of extruded cruciform was identified in E. coli. However, the identification of a major deletion variant generated even in the recombination-deficient E. coli strain DB1256 (recA recBC sbcB) suggested that the cruciform may be extruded transiently in vivo. The lineform to cruciform transition has been further characterized in vitro using two-dimensional agarose gel electrophoresis. The transition was marked by a high energy of formation (delta Gf = 44 kcal/mol), and an apparently low activation energy that enabled facile transitions at physiological temperatures provided there was sufficient torsional energy. By comparing cruciformation in a series of related bidirectional central axis deletions of the telomeric insert, it has been concluded that the presence of extrahelical bases in the terminal hairpin structures contributes substantially to the high delta Gf value. Also, viral sequences flanking the extruded cruciform were shown to influence the measured delta Gf value. Several general features of poxvirus telomere structure that would be expected to influence the facility of cruciform extrusion are discussed along with the implications of the observed cruciform transition event on the replicative process of poxviruses in vivo.

Superhelical DNA with local substructures. A generalization of the topological constraint in terms of the intersection number and the ladder-like correspondence surface

The presence of certain local structural elements in superhelical DNA, such as cruciforms and denatured loops, complicates the topological and geometric analysis of these molecules. In particular, the duplex axis is often difficult to define. In consequence, the usual conservation condition, Lk = Tw + Wr, is often inapplicable as formulated in terms of the winding of either strand of the DNA about the duplex axis. We present here a more general formulation of the topological conservation condition in terms of a model in which the two strands of DNA are regarded as twisting about one another, and in which one of the two strands is considered to writhe. We define a ladder-like correspondence surface, which connects the two strands nd is independent of whether or not a unique duplex axis is locally available. These considerations lead to the definition of a new topological property of superhelical DNA, the intersection number, In. This quantity describes the complexity of a local structural element; in the case of a cruciform, for example, the intersection number is a measure of the number of duplex turns removed from the major segment of the DNA by the cruciform formation. In more general terms, the topological constraint applicable to closed circular DNA is given by Lk(W,C) + In(S,C) = Tw(W,C) + Wr (C), where W and C represent the two strands of the DNA and S is the ladder-like correspondence surface that connects the two strands.

Properties of supercoiled DNA in gel electrophoresis. The V-like dependence of mobility on topological constraint. DNA-matrix interactions

The dependence of the electrophoretic mobility of small DNA rings on topological constraint was investigated in acrylamide or agarose gels as a function of DNA size (from approximately 350 to 1400 base-pairs), gel concentration and nucleotide sequence. Under appropriate adjustment between the size of the DNA and the gel concentration, this dependence was found to be V-shaped in a limited interval around constraint O, the minimum mobility at the apex of the V being obtained for relaxed DNA. Analysis of the DNA size dependence of the V suggests that it is the result of a modulated compaction of the DNA rings by the gel matrix. Compaction appears to be maximum upon relaxation, and to decrease with increase in supercoiling. Consistent with this interpretation, gels were found to oppose structural departures from the B helix, such as Z transition and cruciform extrusion, which tend to relax the DNA molecule and make it more expanded. In contrast, when DNA size or gel concentration are large enough relative to one another, U shapes are observed instead of Vs, as a consequence of an increase in the mobility of the rings closer to relaxation. The relevance of these results to the situation of superhelical DNA in vivo is discussed. Application of the V to the measurement of the DNA helical twist is mentioned.

A pH-dependent structural transition in the homopurine-homopyrimidine tract in superhelical DNA

We have inserted the 509-bp-long fragment of sea urchin P. miliaris histone gene spacer region into plasmid pUC19. The fragment contains the 60-bp-long homopurine-homopyrimidine tract that is known to be hypersensitive to the S1 endonuclease. Using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis we have observed a sharp structural transition in the insert with increasing DNA superhelicity. As in the cases of cruciform and Z form formation, the observed transition partly relaxes the superhelical stress. In contrast with the other two well documented transitions, the observed transition strongly depends on pH. At pH7 and above the transition occurs at negative superhelicities exceeding the physiological range (- sigma greater than 0.08). For pH6 the transition occurs at -sigma = 0.055, whereas for pH4.3 it takes place at -sigma = 0.001. A comprehensive analysis of the obtained data has made it possible to define the nature of the observed transition. We conclude that under superhelical stress or/and at low pH homopurinehomopyrimidine tracts adopt a novel spatial structure called the H form.