A purine and a backbone discontinuous site alter the structure and thermal stability of DNA minidumbbells containing two pentaloops.
Ngai, C.K., Lam, S.L., Lee, H.K., Guo, P.(2022) FEBS Lett 596: 826-840
- PubMed: 35060128 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/1873-3468.14293
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
7VM9 - PubMed Abstract: 
Minidumbbell (MDB) is a noncanonical DNA structure found to form in several pyrimidine-rich short tandem repeats associated with neurodegenerative diseases. The most recently reported MDB contains two pentaloops formed by ATTCT repeats. Here, we studied the effects of a purine residue and a backbone discontinuous site on the structure and thermal stability of MDBs containing two pentaloops. It was found that a purine as the fourth loop residue improved the thermal stability of MDBs containing two regular pentaloops, while a backbone discontinuous site between the third and fourth, or between the fourth and fifth loop residues enhanced the thermal stability of MDBs containing a regular and a quasi pentaloops. The results of this study provide new insights into the sequence criteria and structural basis of MDBs.
- Department of Chemistry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Organizational Affiliation: 
















