A novel minimal motif for left-handed G-quadruplex formation

Poulomi Das; Fernaldo Richtia Winnerdy; Arijit Maity; Yves Mechulam; Anh Tuân Phan

doi:10.1039/d0cc08146a

A novel minimal motif for left-handed G-quadruplex formation

Chem Commun (Camb). 2021 Mar 9;57(20):2527-2530. doi: 10.1039/d0cc08146a.

Authors

Poulomi Das¹, Fernaldo Richtia Winnerdy², Arijit Maity¹, Yves Mechulam³, Anh Tuân Phan²

Affiliations

¹ School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 637371, Singapore. phantuan@ntu.edu.sg.
² School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 637371, Singapore. phantuan@ntu.edu.sg and NTU Institute of Structural Biology, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 636921, Singapore.
³ Laboratoire de Biologie Structurale de la Cellule (BIOC), Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS-UMR7654, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Palaiseau 91128, France.

PMID: 33690751
DOI: 10.1039/d0cc08146a

Abstract

A recent study on the left-handed G-quadruplex (LHG4) DNA revealed a 12-nt minimal motif GTGGTGGTGGTG with the ability to independently form an LHG4 and to drive an adjacent sequence to LHG4 formation. Here we have identified a second LHG4-forming motif, GGTGGTGGTGTG, and determined the X-ray crystal structure of an LHG4 involving this motif. Our structural analysis indicated the role of split guanines and single thymine loops in promoting LHG4 formation.