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Cover Image, Volume 107, Issue 7
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
biopolymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.556
H-Index - 125
eISSN - 1097-0282
pISSN - 0006-3525
DOI - 10.1002/bip.22953
Subject(s) - chemistry , oligonucleotide , intracellular , computational biology , in silico , structural motif , citation , dna , crystallography , computer science , biochemistry , world wide web , biology , gene
Many of the important genomic regions consist of sequences with the potential to form i‐motifs: four‐stranded DNA secondary structures. Sarika Saxena et al . investigate the effect of Mg 2+ and Ca 2+ on the structure of three C‐rich oligonucleotides in physiological ionic conditions and cell‐mimicking molecular crowding conditions. The sequences form an i‐motif at acidic pH in the presence of Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ , as well as at neutral pH in the presence of Mg 2+ . Cell‐mimicking molecular crowding promoted i‐motif formation for all three oligonucleotides. The work suggests that intracellular conditions where hydration becomes less favourable may facilitate the folding of C‐rich sequences into i‐motifs. (DOI: 10.1002/bip.23018 )