DNA double helical fragment at atomic resolution

Viswamitra, MA and Kennard, O and Jones, PG and Sheldrick, GM and Salisbury, S and Falvello, L and Shakked, Z (1978) DNA double helical fragment at atomic resolution. In: Nature, 273 (5664). pp. 687-688.

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Abstract

DETAILS of the molecular architecture of double helical ribonucleic acids at atomic resolution have recently become available from single crystal X-ray diffraction studies of dinucleotides composed of complementary bases 1-3. No similar studies have been published for deoxynucleotides. We report here the structure of the deoxytetranucleotide d-pApTpApT (5′-P-adenylyl-(3′-5′)-thymidylyl-(3′-5′) -adenylyl-(3′-5′)-thymidine) (I) at a resolution of 1.0 Å. This is the first tetranucleotide whose structure has been elucidated by X-ray diffraction. The work is part of an investigation of protein-nucleic acid interactions using single-crystal studies of small model compounds. d-pApTpApT was chosen as one of the first compounds to be examined because there is evidence that poly(dA-dT) has unusual binding properties and that A.T-rich regions in certain DNAs have specific biological roles4-7. We hope that these investigations will provide information about the influence of specific base pairs and sequences on the fine details of the DNA structures, and thus aid the understanding of the selective recognition of nucleotide sequences of the DNA double helix by proteins. © 1978 Nature Publishing Group.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Nature
Publisher:	Nature
Additional Information:	The copyright of this article belongs to the Nature.
Keywords:	dna, Base Sequence; Hydrogen Bonding; Isomerism; Nucleic Acid Conformation; Oligodeoxyribonucleotides; Oligonucleotides; X-Ray Diffraction
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Molecular Reproduction, Development & Genetics Division of Physical & Mathematical Sciences > Physics
Date Deposited:	01 Jun 2022 06:36
Last Modified:	01 Jun 2022 06:36
URI:	https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/73094

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