DNA stem-loop structures in oligopurine-oligopyrimidine triplexes

DNA structure and function

The proposal of a double-helical structure for DNA over 60 years ago provided an eminently satisfying explanation for the heritability of genetic information. But why is DNA, and not RNA, now the dominant biological information store? We argue that, in addition to its coding function, the ability of DNA, unlike RNA, to adopt a B-DNA structure confers advantages both for information accessibility and for packaging. The information encoded by DNA is both digital - the precise base specifying, for example, amino acid sequences - and analogue. The latter determines the sequence-dependent physicochemical properties of DNA, for example, its stiffness and susceptibility to strand separation. Most importantly, DNA chirality enables the formation of supercoiling under torsional stress. We review recent evidence suggesting that DNA supercoiling, particularly that generated by DNA translocases, is a major driver of gene regulation and patterns of chromosomal gene organization, and in its guise as a promoter of DNA packaging enables DNA to act as an energy store to facilitate the passage of translocating enzymes such as RNA polymerase.

The ribosomal RNA gene promoter and adjacent cis-acting DNA sequences govern plasmid DNA partitioning and stable inheritance in the parasitic protozoan Leishmania

Detailed analysis of the Leishmania donovani ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene promoter region has allowed the identification of cis-acting sequences involved in plasmid DNA partitioning and stable plasmid inheritance. We report that plasmids bearing the 350 bp rRNA promoter along with the 200 bp region immediately 3' to the promoter exhibited a 6.5-fold increase in transformation frequency and were transmitted to daughter cells as single-copy molecules. This is in contrast to what has been observed for plasmid molecules in this organism so far. Moreover, we show that these low-copy-number plasmids displayed a remarkable mitotic stability in the absence of selective pressure. The region in the vicinity of the RNA pol I transcription initiation site, and also in the adjacent 200 nt, displays a complex structural organization and shares sequence similarity to the yeast autonomously replicating consensus sequence and centromere DNA elements. Deletion analyses indicated that these elements were necessary but not sufficient for plasmid DNA partitioning and stable inheritance, and that the rRNA promoter region was required for optimal function. These results suggest an interplay between RNA pol I transcription, DNA replication, DNA partitioning and mitotic stability in trypanosomatids. This is the first example of defined DNA elements for plasmid partitioning and stable inheritance in the protozoan parasite Leishmania.

Motifs in nucleic acids: molecular mechanics restraints for base pairing and base stacking

In building and refining nucleic acid structures, it is often desirable to enforce particular base pairing and/or base stacking interactions. Energy-based modeling programs with classical molecular mechanics force fields do not lend themselves to the easy imposition of penalty terms corresponding to such restraints, because the requirement that two bases lie in or near the same plane (pairing) or that they lie in parallel planes (stacking) cannot be easily expressed in terms of traditional interactions involving two atoms (bonds), three atoms (angles), or four atoms (torsions). Here we derive expressions that define a collection of pseudobonds and pseudoangles through which molecular mechanics restraints for base pairing and stacking can be imposed. We have implemented these restraints into the JUMNA package for modeling DNA and RNA structures. JUMNA scripts can specify base pairing with a variety of standard geometries (Watson-Crick, Hoogsteen, wobble, etc.), or with user-defined geometries; they can also specify stacking arrangements. We have also implemented "soft-core" functions to modify van der Waals and electrostatic interactions to avoid steric conflicts in particularly difficult refinements where two backbones need to pass through one another. Test cases are presented to show the utility of the method. The restraints could be adapted for implementation in other molecular mechanics packages.

Structural heterogeneity in intramolecular DNA triple helices

Oligodeoxynucleotides designed to form intramolecular triple helices are widely used as model systems in thermodynamic and structural studies. We now report results from UV, Raman and NMR experiments demonstrating that the strand polarity, which also determines the orientation of the connecting loops, has a considerable impact on the formation and stability of pyr x pur x pyr triple helices. There are two types of monomolecular triplexes that can be defined by the location of their purine tract at either the 5'- or 3'-end of the sequence. We have examined four pairs of oligonucleotides with the same base composition but with reversed polarity that can fold into intramolecular triple helices with seven base triplets and two T4 loops under appropriate conditions. UV spectroscopic monitoring of thermal denaturation indicates a consistently higher thermal stability for the 5'-sequences at pH 5.0 in the absence of Mg2+ ions. Raman spectra provide evidence for the formation of triple helices at pH 5 for oligomers with purine tracts located at either the 5'- or 3'-end of the sequence. However, NMR measurements reveal considerable differences in the secondary structures formed by the two types of oligonucleotides. Thus, at acidic pH significant structural heterogeneity is observed for the 3'-sequences. Employing selectively 15N-labeled oligomers, NMR experiments indicate a folding pattern for the competing structures that at least partially changes both Hoogsteen and Watson-Crick base-base interactions.

RNA loop structure prediction via bond scaling and relaxation

We have developed a method for predicting the structure of small RNA loops that can be used to augment already existing RNA modeling techniques. The method requires no input constraints on loop configuration other than end-to-end distance. Initial loop structures are generated by randomizing the torsion angles, beginning at one end of the polynucleotide chain and correlating each successive angle with the previous. The bond lengths of these structures are then scaled to fit within the known end constraints and the equilibrium bond lengths of the potential energy function are scaled accordingly. Through a series of rescaling and minimization steps the structures are allowed to relax to lower energy configurations with standard bond lengths and reduced van der Waals clashes. This algorithm has been tested on the variable loops of yeast tRNA-Asp and yeast tRNA-Phe, as well as the sarcin-ricin tetraloop and the anticodon loop of yeast tRNA-Phe. The results indicate good correlation between potential energy and the loop structure predictions that are closest to the variable loop crystal structures, but poorer correlation for the more isolated stem loops. The number of stacking interactions has proven to be a good objective measure of the best loop predictions. Selecting on the basis of energy and stacking, we obtain two structures with 0.65 and 0.75 A all-atom rms deviations (RMSD) from the crystal structure for the tRNA-Asp variable loop. The best structure prediction for the tRNA-Phe variable loop has an all-atom RMSD of 2.2 A and a backbone RMSD of 1.6 A, with a single base responsible for most of the deviation. For the sarcin-ricin loop from 28S ribosomal RNA, the predicted structure's all-atom RMSD from the nmr structure is 1.0 A. We obtain a 1.8 A RMSD structure for the tRNA-Phe anticodon loop.

Conformational polymorphism in telomeric structures: loop orientation and interloop pairing in d(G4TnG4)

Sequence repeats constituting the telomeric regions of chromosomes are known to adopt a variety of unusual structures, consisting of a G tetraplex stem and short stretches of thymines or thymines and adenines forming loops over the stem. Detailed model building and molecular mechanics studies have been carried out for these telomeric sequences to elucidate different types of loop orientations and possible conformations of thymines in the loop. The model building studies indicate that a minimum of two thymines have to be interspersed between guanine stretches to form folded-back structures with loops across adjacent strands in a G tetraplex (both over the small as well as large groove), while the minimum number of thymines required to build a loop across the diagonal strands in a G tetraplex is three. For two repeat sequences, these hairpins, resulting from different types of folding, can dimerize in three distinct ways--i.e., with loops across adjacent strands and on same side, with loops across adjacent strands and on opposite sides, and with loops across diagonal strands and on opposite sides--to form hairpin dimer structures. Energy minimization studies indicate that all possible hairpin dimers have very similar total energy values, though different structures are stabilized by different types of interactions. When the two loops are on the same side, in the hairpin dimer structures of d(G4TnG4), the thymines form favorably stacked tetrads in the loop region and there is interloop hydrogen bonding involving two hydrogen bonds for each thymine-thymine pair. Our molecular mechanics calculations on various folded-back as well as parallel tetraplex structures of these telomeric sequences provide a theoretical rationale for the experimentally observed feature that the presence of intervening thymine stretches stabilizes folded-back structures, while isolated stretches of guanines adopt a parallel tetraplex structure.

Modeling large RNAs and ribonucleoprotein particles using molecular mechanics techniques

There is a growing body of low-resolution structural data that can be utilized to devise structural models for large RNAs and ribonucleoproteins. These models are routinely built manually. We introduce an automated refinement protocol to utilize such data for building low-resolution three-dimensional models using the tools of molecular mechanics. In addition to specifying the positions of each nucleotide, the protocol provides quantitative estimates of the uncertainties in those positions, i.e., the resolution of the model. In typical applications, the resolution of the models is about 10-20 A. Our method uses reduced representations and allows us to refine three-dimensional structures of systems as big as the 16S and 23S ribosomal RNAs, which are about one to two orders of magnitude larger than nucleic acids that can be examined by traditional all-atom modeling methods. Nonatomic resolution structural data--secondary structure, chemical cross-links, chemical and enzymatic footprinting patterns, protein positions, solvent accessibility, and so on--are combined with known motifs in RNA structure to predict low-resolution models of large RNAs. These structural constraints are imposed on the RNA chain using molecular mechanics-type potential functions with parameters based on the quality of experimental data. Surface potential functions are used to incorporate shape and positional data from electron microscopy image reconstruction experiments into our models. The structures are optimized using techniques of energy refinement to get RNA folding patterns. In addition to providing a consensus model, the method finds the range of models consistent with the data, which allows quantitative evaluation of the resolution of the model. The method also identifies conflicts in the experimental data. Although our protocol is aimed at much larger RNAs, we illustrate these techniques using the tRNA structure as an example and test-bed.

Stabilities of nucleotide loops bridging the pyrimidine strands in DNA pyrimidine.purine.pyrimidine triplexes: special stability of the CTTTG loop

Recent studies of DNA hairpin loops have shown considerable dependence of the stability on the sequence of the loop [Senior, M., Jones, R. A., & Breslauer, K. J. (1988a) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 85, 6242-6246; Xodo, L. E., Manzini, G., Quadrifoglio, F., van der Marel, G., & van Boom, J. H. (1989) Biochimie 71, 793-803; Hirao, I., Nishimura, Y., Tagawa, Y., Watanabe, K., & Miura, K. (1992) Nucleic Acids Res. 20, 3891-3896]. Analogous studies have not, until now, been carried out with loops in triple helices. We report the results from experiments in which we examine the relative stabilities of pentanucleotide loops that bridge between the pyrimidine strands in DNA pyr.pur.pyr triple helices. There are two types of loops that are defined by the relative orientation of the purine strand: a 5'-loop and a 3'-loop. The sequences examined in this study are the bimolecular triplexes formed between 5'-dTTCTTTTCL1TTTL5CTTTTCTT (loop nucleotides are underlined, and L1 and L5 represent varied nucleotides) and the two purine strands, 5'-dAAGAAAAG-3' and 5'-dGAAAAGAA-3'. The first and last nucleotides in the loop are varied, since stacking interactions may be strongest at these positions [Senior et al., 1988a; Senior, M., Jones, R. A., & Breslauer, K. J. (1988b) Biochemistry 27, 3879-3885], and we examine 14 sequence combinations for each loop type. Thermal denaturation studies carried out at pH 7.0 indicate considerable variation in the stabilities of these loops.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Base pairing and steric interactions between pyrimidine strand bridging loops and the purine strand in DNA pyrimidine.purine.pyrimidine triplexes

Bimolecular triple-helical DNA complexes recently have found use in a new strategy for the recognition of single-stranded nucleic acids, in which circular (Kool, 1991; Prakash & Kool, 1992) or hairpin-shaped (Giovannangeli et al., 1991; D'Souza & Kool, 1992) oligonucleotides bind these single strands by triplex formation. Bimolecular triplexes may also be formed in vivo as H-DNA, where this structure may potentially play a role in gene expression and recombination (Belotserkovskii et al., 1990; Hanvey et al., 1989; Shimizu et al., 1989). In all of these complexes, the central strand of the triplex must pass beyond the loop that bridges the outer two strands, and models and preliminary experiments have indicated that there may be important interactions between this central strand and the loop (Prakash & Kool, 1992). We now report thermal denaturation studies carried out specifically to investigate these interactions in detail, using as a model the 5'-loop and 3'-loop complexes formed between 14 pyrimidine oligodeoxynucleotides having the sequence 5'-dTTCTTTTCL1TTTL5CTTTTCTT, where L1 and L5 represent varied nucleotides in the loop (which is underlined), and eight target strands having the sequence 5'-dCCCCFAAGAAAAG-3' or 5'-dGAAAAGAAFCCCCC-3', where F is a varied nucleotide flanking the triplex in the central strand. Results correlated from 64 different sequence combinations show that there is wide variation in the stabilities of the complexes, indicating specific and substantial interactions between the nucleotides at the L1, F, and L5 positions. Melting temperatures at pH 7.0 range from 17.0 degrees C to 34.6 degrees C, and free energies (37 degrees C) range from -3.2 to -7.8 kcal mol-1.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Theoretical predictions of DNA hairpin loop conformations: correlations with thermodynamic and spectroscopic data

A computational procedure for generating conformations of DNA hairpin loop structures from a broad range of low-energy starting states is described. The starting point of the modeling is the distribution of oligonucleotide chain conformations obtained from Monte Carlo simulations of feasible dinucleotide steps. Structures which meet the spatial criteria for hairpin loop formation are selected from the distributions and subsequently minimized using all-atom molecular mechanics. Both d(CTnG) and d(CAnG) oligomers, where n = 3, 4, or 5, are modeled. These sequences are chosen because of the large number of published NMR and thermodynamic studies on DNA hairpins containing thymine or adenine residues. The minimized three-dimensional hairpin loop structures are compared with one another as well as analyzed in terms of available experimental data. The computational approach provides the first detailed analysis of DNA hairpin loop structure in terms of a multistate conformational model. Investigation of the minimized conformations reveals several interesting structural features. First, hairpin loops of the same sequence adopt several distinctly different conformations, as opposed to minor variants of the same equilibrium structure, that could potentially interconvert in solution. Second, in contrast to double-helical nucleic acids, the hairpin loop models exhibit hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces. The different disposition of hydrophobic groups in loops versus duplexes could modulate both protein-nucleic acid interactions and nucleic acid self-associations. Third, perpendicular aromatic interactions of loop residues are observed in many of the computed hairpins. This sort of interaction might be important in the stabilization of non-hydrogen-bonded nucleic acid secondary and tertiary structures. The predicted structural features in the models help, in addition, to account for the unusual thermodynamic properties of DNA hairpin loops. Comparison of the theoretically-generated NOEs in different structures further reveals that very different molecular structures and interactions can, in principle, produce the same NOEs. The multistate description suggested by this observation differs from the conventional interpretation of DNA solution structure in terms of the fluctuations about a single preferred chain conformation. There is not necessarily only one set of closely related structures consistent with the observed data.

Strand orientation of [alpha]-oligodeoxynucleotides in triple helix structures: dependence on nucleotide sequence

The aims of the present theoretical study of the conformations of [alpha]-oligodeoxynucleotides forming triple helices with DNA duplexes are to understand the structural and energetic factors involved in [alpha]-triple helix formation by means of energy minimization, and to explain the experimentally observed dependence of strand orientation on the nucleotide sequence. It is found that the energetically preferred orientation of the [alpha]-oligonucleotide with respect to the homopurine strand depends on the sequence of the homopurine.homopyrimidine tracts. This is a consequence of the structural heteromorphism of base triplets in the intrinsically more stable reverse Hoogsteen hydrogen bonding configuration. Practical rules are proposed for determining the orientation of the nuclease-resistant [alpha]-oligodeoxynucleotide strand which will form the most stable triple helix.

Molecular modeling to predict the structural and biological effects of mutations in a highly conserved histone mRNA loop sequence

The 3'-end of histone mRNAs contains a highly conserved sequence motif which is believed to form a 6 base pair stem and a 4 base loop. These sequences are involved in both the efficiency of 3'-end formation and stability of the mature histone mRNA. We have modeled four stem basepairs and the loop portion of this structure using the wildtype sequences and several mutant sequences. A structure for the wildtype stem-loop is proposed that is based on energy minimization using a representative wildtype sequence and comparison with structures obtained using naturally occurring mutations which do not alter loop function. A wildtype structure is proposed in which the top basepair of the stem is broken, forming a six base loop. Mutant sequences with altered bases in the loop and in the stem were also modeled. The effect of these mutations on the proposed wildtype structure is discussed and possible biological consequences considered.

Structural Effects in the Recognition of DNA by Circular Oligonucleotides

It was recently reported that certain pyrimidine-rich circular DNA oligomers can bind strongly and specifically to purine-rich DNA or RNA strands by forming bimolecular triple helical complexes.1-3 In this study are investigated the effects of structural variations on the strength of binding for this new class of nucleotide-binding ligand. The number of loop nucleotides (nt) which is optimum for bridging the two binding domains of a circle is examined. Comparing loop sizes of 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10 nt, the optimum number of nucleotides in a loop is found to be five for the sequences studied. In order to test the method of construction and the ability of these compounds to bind sites of varied length, we attempted to synthesize circles of varied size. Circles over the size range 24-46 nt were successfully constructed. Varying the target site length shows that oligomers of four, eight, twelve, and eighteen nucleotides can be complexed strongly by circles, with melting temperatures (Tm) 17° to >33 °C higher at pH 7.0 than the corresponding Watson-Crick duplexes of the same length. Also studied is the effect of the covalently closed circular structure in comparison to linear oligomers having the same sequence; it is shown that a covalently closed circle has considerably higher binding affinity than do three different "nicked" circles (linear oligomers) which contain the same bases. The high binding affinities of these circles are thus attributed to the entropic benefit of preorganization. Finally, the ability of such circles to bind to complementary sites within longer oligomers, the ends of which must pass beyond the loops of a circle, is confirmed by melting studies with synthetic target strands 36 bases in length.

Protonated polypurine/polypyrimidine DNA tracts that appear to lack the single-stranded pyrimidine loop predicted by the "H" model

Three synthetic oligomers: 5'd(AG)8.dA.d(CT)(8)3'(A), 5'd(TC)7.d(TTA).d(GA)(8)3'(B) and d(GA)17(C) were cloned into the plasmid vector p915 in order to study the effects of sequence symmetry on pH-dependent structural transitions in polypurine/polypyrimidine DNA. When present in linear molecules all three sequences undergo transitions to protonated states. These are kinked to different degrees as determined by a non-denaturing gel mobility shift assay. Chemical probe analysis shows that the protonated states adopted by the linear forms of A and C exhibit certain features which have been regarded as indicating partially triple stranded "H" transition structures. The chemical reactivities of the transition structure adopted by linear molecule B and certain features of those exhibited by the transition structures of linear molecules A and C do not conform to the predictions of the "H" model.