Comparison of theoretical denaturation maps of phiX174 and SV40 with their gene maps

Genome wide application of DNA melting analysis

Correspondences between functional and thermodynamic melting properties in a genome are being increasingly employed for ab initio gene finding and for the interpretation of the evolution of genomes. Here we present the first systematic genome wide comparison between biologically coding domains and thermodynamically stable regions. In particular, we develop statistical methods to estimate the reliability of the resulting predictions. Not surprisingly, we find that the success of the approach depends on the difference in GC content between the coding and the non-coding parts of the genome and on the percentage of coding base-pairs in the sequence. These prerequisites vary strongly between species, where we observe no systematic differences between eukaryotes and prokaryotes. We find a number of organisms in which the strong correlation of coding domains and thermodynamically stable regions allows us to identify putative exons or genes to complement existing approaches. In contrast to previous investigations along these lines we have not employed the Poland-Scheraga (PS) model of DNA melting but use the earlier Zimm-Bragg (ZB) model. The Ising-like form of the ZB model can be viewed as an approximation to the PS model, with averaged loop entropies included into the cooperative factor [Formula: see text]. This results in a speed-up by a factor of 20-100 compared to the Fixman-Freire algorithm for the solution of the PS model. We show that for genomic sequences the resulting systematic errors are negligible compared to the parameterization uncertainty of the models. We argue that for limited computing resources, available CPU power is better invested in broadening the statistical base for genomic investigations than in marginal improvements of the description of the physical melting behavior.

Characteristic features of thermal stability map of DNA in Escherichia coli and eukaryotic genes

Distribution of double-helix thermal stability of Escherichia coli and eukaryotic DNAs was analyzed. The results confirmed the previous propositions based on the study of the stability distribution in phage DNAs: (1) stability fluctuation appears near the boundaries of protein coding regions (PCRs) and non protein coding regions (NPCRs); (2) PCRs have less fluctuation than NPCRs. The present analysis also revealed that the local G + C content is lower in the beginning of PCRs of E. coli than the average G + C content of PCR and that deviations in the amino acid composition and the third letter usage PCRs are involved in the low G + C content; the biological meaning of this is discussed in relation to mRNA structure.

CpG deficiency, dinucleotide distributions and nucleosome positioning

The dinucleotide CpG is deficient in (A + T)-rich regions of vertebrate DNA in both coding and non-coding sequences and there is a corresponding increase above expectation in the occurrence of TpG and CpA. By contrast in (G + C)-rich regions no deficiency of CpG is found. Such (G + C)-rich sequences, containing the expected number of CpG dinucleotides, alternate along the genome with (A + T)-rich sequences which have a lower than expected CpG content. The G + C content of vertebrate DNA can oscillate with a period of 150-200 bp and this may be a factor in positioning nucleosomes. The role of mutagenesis in loss of CpG and increase of A + T, particularly in non-coding regions, is discussed.

Correlations of repetitive and AT-rich DNA segments within the chicken globin gene domains

The repetitive DNA segments were mapped within a 30 Kbp genomic domain including (in 5' to 3' order) the chicken embryonic pi and adult alpha D (minor) and alpha A (major) globin genes. Two repeats map 5 and 8 Kbp upstream from the embryonic pi gene and another 3 Kbp downstream of the adult alpha A gene. These repetitive DNA sequences are placed within, or immediately adjacent to the AT-rich DNA segments framing this domain. Similar correlations exist also within the chicken beta globin gene domain. The positions of these AT-rich and repetitive DNA segments framing the alpha globin gene domain also correlate with other already explored features of long range DNA organisation, as clusters of sites of DNAse I hypersensitivity and differential methylation, sites of Matrix-DNA attachment, and with the beginning and end of the transcribed domain.

Altered DNA conformations detected by mung bean nuclease occur in promoter and terminator regions of supercoiled pBR322 DNA

Mung bean nuclease was used to probe for recognizable DNA unwinding and unpairing in the plasmid pBR322. In negatively supercoiled DNA, but not relaxed DNA, cleavages occurred preferentially in non-coding regions of the genome. The types of nucleotide sequences cleaved and which non-coding regions were cleaved depended upon environmental conditions. At 37 degrees C, cleavages occurred in an 84 bp A+T-rich sequence in the terminator region of the ampicillin-resistance gene. Recognition is likely based on a novel DNA conformation which occurs in the longest, most dA+dT-rich region of pBR322. In the presence of 1 mM Mg2+, cleavages occurred in inverted repeated sequences in the promoter regions of the RNA primer for DNA replication and ampicillin- and tetracycline-resistance genes as well as the terminator of RNA-1. Potential loops of hairpin (cruciform) structures were cleaved. At 27 degrees C, cleavages occurred near a promoter activated by cAMP receptor protein in vitro and in the 3' non-coding region of the tetracycline-resistance gene. Thus, in supercoiled pBR322 DNA, recognizable DNA unwinding and unpairing occurs preferentially in regulatory regions for transcription and DNA replication.

Differential modulation by spermidine of reactions catalyzed by type 1 prokaryotic and eukaryotic topoisomerases

In the absence of DNA aggregation, spermidine inhibited the relaxation of negatively supercoiled DNA by Escherichia coli topoisomerase I at concentrations of the polyamine normally found intracellularly. Spermidine also curtailed the cleavage of negatively supercoiled ColE1 DNA by the enzyme in the absence of Mg2+. On the contrary, knotting of M13 single-stranded DNA circles catalyzed by topoisomerase I was stimulated by the polyamine. Relaxation of supercoiled DNA by eukaryotic type 1 topoisomerases, such as calf thymus topoisomerase I and wheat germ topoisomerase, was significantly stimulated by spermidine in the same range of concentrations that inhibited the prokaryotic enzyme. In reactions catalyzed by S1 nuclease, the polyamine enhanced the digestion of single-stranded DNA and inhibited the nicking of negatively supercoiled DNA. These results suggest that spermidine modifies the supercoiled duplex substrate in these reactions by modulating the degree of single strandedness.

Stability distribution in the phage lambda-DNA double helix: a correlation between physical and genetic structure

Statistical analyses on the positional correlation of physical-stability and base-sequence distribution maps with genetic map are made for the whole DNA (48502 bases) of lambda-phage. The susceptibility to a double-helix unfolding perturbation and the fraction of the transient opening of a particular region of the double helix are adopted to define this physical stability. The principal features obtained are: A) The DNA double strand of protein coding regions is found to have homostabilizing propensity around a defined stability which is characteristic to each individual gene. B) The stability of the double helix in non-protein coding region fluctuates, on average over the whole region, more than that in protein coding region. C) Boundary regions of protein coding and non-protein coding regions are regions of high stability-fluctuation. Stability especially fluctuates at the protein-coding-region side of the boundary. Contrary to the quiet feature of the interior part of protein coding region rather noisy part exists at its edge. D) One frequently opening region coincides with the attaching site for the site specific recombination between phage and bacterial DNA. There are two possible ways to explain the noisy feature in the stability distribution in non-protein coding regions: 1) The region has been used as the locus of recombination as evolution took place. Thus DNAs which were homostabilized around a different value characteristic to each individual DNA, have been joined there many times, so that the noise has accumulated as a remnant of evolutional history; and/or 2) the base-composition homogenizing or double-helix homostabilizing mechanism does not work in unneeded region such as non-protein coding region or introns. Since corresponding characteristics have been found in our previous analyses on other viral and globin-gene DNAs, the rules mentioned above may be comprehensively extended to other DNAs.

Mung bean nuclease cleavage of a dA + dT-rich sequence or an inverted repeat sequence in supercoiled PM2 DNA depends on ionic environment

We have determined the nucleotide sequences around two alternative sites cleaved in supercoiled PM2 DNA by single-strand-specific mung bean nuclease in different ionic environments. In 10 mM Tris-HC1 (pH 7.0, 37 degrees C), the major site is a dA+dT-rich sequence which maps with a known early denaturation region at 0.75 map units. About 30 cleavages occurred in a 135 bp region. Cleavages were largely excluded at (dA)n . (dT)n (n = 3-7) sequences. Cleavage patterns of this type have not been previously observed in dA+dT-rich sequences. With the addition of 0.1 M NaC1 the major alternative site occurred in a hyphenated inverted repeat sequence 500 bp away (0.70 map units) and did not map to an early denaturation region. One major and 4 minor cleavages occurred in the region between the repeats, suggesting that a hairpin containing at most a 12 bp stem and 10 base loop is recognized. The basis for nuclease recognition of the dA+dT-rich sequence is not clear. The differences in the sequences and cleavage patterns at the alternative sites indicate that their secondary structures differ.

Correlation between thermal stability maps and genetic maps of double-stranded DNAs

The positional correlation of boundaries of cooperatively melting regions with boundaries of protein coding regions and mere open reading frames, and with cleavage sites of restriction enzymes and S1 nuclease are statistically examined for phi X174, G4, fd, SV40, BKV, and polyoma DNAs. A statistically significant correlation does exist in the case of boundaries of protein coding regions, but none is detected for boundaries of mere open reading frames or cleavage sites of restriction enzymes and S1 nuclease. The significant correlation disappears when the cooperativity of melting of the DNA double strand decreases to a nonphysiological condition. The result presents the first evidence showing that a physical property of DNAs correlates with their biological function.

Fine structure in the thermal denaturation of DNA: high temperature-resolution spectrophotometric studies

Fine structures which appear in the optical melting profile of DNA are examined from both the experimental and theoretical aspects. After a brief historical survey of the DNA melting experiments during the pre-fine-structure era in Section II, the high temperature-resolution experimental techniques which are essential to the investigation of fine structure are described in Section III. Then, the current status of the high-resolution study is reviewed first by a phenomenological description of the melting profile (Section IV) and then of the refolding profile (Section V), where a general idea about the cooperatively melting region and several factors affecting it is given. Sections VI and VII are devoted to the review of current theoretical works. Several well-established theoretical frameworks which correlate the base sequence with the melting phenomena are examined in terms of their rigorousness and usefulness. The molecular thermodynamic parameters concerning the DNA melting which have been evaluated by several research groups are compared and discussed. Finally, in Section VIII, current ideas on the correlation between the fine structure and genetic functions and genetic maps are reviewed. Some future problems relating to the fine structure are also discussed.