The 1.75-A crystal structure of the uracil-DNA glycosylase from herpes simplex virus type-1 reveals a new fold, distantly related to dinucleotide-binding proteins. Complexes with a trideoxynucleotide, and with uracil, define the DNA-binding site and allow a detailed understanding of the exquisitely specific recognition of uracil in DNA. The overall structure suggests binding models for elongated single- and double-stranded DNA substrates. Conserved residues close to the uracil-binding site suggest a catalytic mechanism for hydrolytic base excision.
The crystal structure of the oligonucleotide d(CGCAAATTO8GGCG), containing the chemically modified base 8-hydroxydeoxyguanine (O8G), has been determined at 2.5-A resolution and refined to a crystallographic R-factor of 16.8%. The B-type DNA helix contains standard Watson-Crick base pairs except at the mismatch sites, where O8G adopts a syn conformation and forms hydrogen bonds to adenine in the anti conformation. The thermodynamic stability of the duplex was found by UV melting techniques to be intermediate between the native oligonucleotide d(CGCAAATTTGCG) and an oligonucleotide containing A.G mispairs d(CGCAAATTGGCG). Comparison of the structure of the O8G(syn).A(anti) base pair with those of Watson-Crick base pairs has given a reason why O8G.A base pairs are not well repaired by DNA proofreading enzymes.
The possible formation of inter-base C-H.O hydrogen bonds in A.T, A.U and certain non-Watson-Crick base pairs is examined. A geometrical analysis in conjunction with implications for the thermodynamic stability of the base pairs suggests that C-H.O hydrogen bonds could form in nucleic acid base pairs. They may alleviate destabilizing interactions that would arise if an unsatisfied hydrogen-bond acceptor were present and mediate secondary hydrogen-bonding effects in these base pairs.
The structures of two hexanucleotide-anthracycline complexes d(CGGCCG)/daunomycin and d(TGGCCA)/adriamycin have been determined using single-crystal X-ray diffraction techniques. In both cases the anthracycline molecule is bound to non-preferred d(YGG) base-pair triplet sites. For both complexes the crystals are tetragonal and belong to the space group P4(1)2(1)2. Unit-cell dimensions are a = 28.07 (2), c = 53.35 (1) and a = 28.01 (1), c = 52.99 (1) A, respectively, and the asymmetric unit of both structures consists of one strand of DNA, one drug molecule and approximately 50 water molecules. For the d(CGGCCG) complex the refinement converged with an R factor of 0.21 for 1108 reflections with F >/= 2sigma(F) in the resolution range 7.0-1.9 A. For the complex involving d(TGGCCA) the final R value was 0.22 for 1475 reflections in the range 7.0-1.7 A with the same criterion for observed data. Both complexes are essentially isomorphous with related structures but differ in terms of the number of favourable van der Waals interactions of the amino sugars of the drug molecules with the DNA duplexes and the formation in the minor groove of heterodromic pentagonal arrangements of hydrogen bonds involving water molecules which link the amino sugars to the DNA. These differences in structure are used to rationalize the lack of affinity of daunomycin-type anthracyclines for d(YGG) and d(YGC) sites.
G(anti).A(anti) mispairs are held together by two hydrogen of guanine and the N6 and N1 of adenine. If the mispairs do not exhibit high propeller twist they may be further stabilized by inter-base reverse three-centre hydrogen bonds. These interactions, and other hydrogen bonds seen in our study, may be important in modelling the structure of RNA molecules and their interactions with other molecules.
A single-crystal X-ray analysis of the synthetic oligomer d(CGCGAATT(epsilon dA)GCG) (epsilon dA = 1,N6-ethenoadenosine) has been carried out. The B-form duplex crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group P2(1)2(1)2(1) with unit cell dimensions a = 24.31 A, b = 39.65 A, and c = 63.05 A. Refinement has converged with R = 0.182 for 2837 reflections in the resolution range 7.0-2.25 A for a model consisting of the duplex, one Mg2+ ion, and 127 water molecules. The structure contains two G.epsilon dA base pairings which adopt a G(anti).epsilon dA(syn) conformation. The geometry of the two mispairs suggests that the G.epsilon dA pairing are held together by three interbase hydrogen bonds. These are N2(G)-H...N1(epsilon dA), N1(G)...N9(epsilon dA), and O6(G)...H-C8(epsilon dA). The last interaction serves to alleviate the destabilizing effect that would occur due to the presence of an unfulfilled hydrogen bond acceptor. A superposition of the G(4).epsilon dA-(21) base pair found in this structure and the Watson-Crick G(4).C(21) base pair observed in the native dodecamer d(CGCGAATTCGCG) indicates a significant difference in the sugar/phosphate backbone. However, the overall conformations of the two duplexes remain similar, suggesting that the modified base pairs are accommodated into the double helix mainly by alterations of the backbone conformation. Such structural rearrangement of the backbone, upon incorporation of epsilon dA, may provide a signal to the 3-methyladenine-DNA glycosylase that repairs such lesions.
The crystal structure refinement of the synthetic dodecamer d(CGCGAASSCGCG), where S = 4'-thio-2'-deoxythymidine, has converged at R=0.201 for 2605 reflections with F > 2sigma(F) in the resolution range 8.0-2.4 A for a model consisting of the dodecamer duplex and 66 water molecules. A comparison of its structure with that of the native dodecamer d(CGCGAATTCGCG) has revealed that the major differences between the two structures is a change in the conformation of the sugar-phosphate backbone in the regions at and adjacent to the positions of the modified nucleosides. Examination of the fine structural parameters for each of the structures reveals that the thiosugars adopt a C3'-exo conformation in d(CGCGAASSCGCG), rather than the approximate C1'-exo conformation found for the analogous sugars in the structure of d(CGCGAATTCGCG). The observed differences in structure between the two duplexes may help to explain the enhanced resistance to nuclease digestion of synthetic oligonucleotides containing 4'-thio-2'-deoxynucleotides.
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