Frustrated folding of guanine quadruplexes in telomeric DNA.

ABSTRACT: Human chromosomes terminate in long, single-stranded, DNA overhangs of the repetitive sequence (TTAGGG)n. Sets of four adjacent TTAGGG repeats can fold into guanine quadruplexes (GQ), four-stranded structures that are implicated in telomere maintenance and cell immortalization and are targets in cancer therapy. Isolated GQs have been studied in detail, however much less is known about folding in long repeat sequences. Such chains adopt an enormous number of configurations containing various arrangements of GQs and unfolded gaps, leading to a highly frustrated energy landscape. To better understand this phenomenon, we used mutagenesis, thermal melting, and global analysis to determine stability, kinetic, and cooperativity parameters for GQ folding within chains containing 8-12 TTAGGG repeat

SUBMITTER: Carrino S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8034632 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature