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Oligopurine · oligopyrimidine tracts do not have the same conformation as analogous polypurine · polypyrimidines
Author(s) -
Jayasena Vineetha K.,
Behe Michael J.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
biopolymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.556
H-Index - 125
eISSN - 1097-0282
pISSN - 0006-3525
DOI - 10.1002/bip.360310506
Subject(s) - guanosine , chemistry , crystallography , base pair , stereochemistry , phase (matter) , yield (engineering) , nuclear magnetic resonance , biochemistry , dna , physics , thermodynamics , organic chemistry
The ability of tracts of synthetic oligopurine · oligopyrimidines containing both adenosine and guanosine residues to approach the conformation of analogous polypurine · polypyrimidines has been examined as a function of tract length by CD spectroscopy. Tracts of up to 19 contiguous, alternating dA and dG residues yield CD spectra that are distinctly different from that of the analogous alternating polymer. Thus the structural changes reflected in the unusual CD spectrum of poly[d(AG)] · poly [d(CT)] must require even longer tract lengths. Tracts of contiguous adenosines flanked by guanosine residues were seen to approach the CD spectrum of poly[dA] · poly[dT] quite slowly as a function of tract length, requiring more than 24 contiguous adenosines to give CD spectra similar to the homopolymer. These results lead us to the conclusion that oligopurine tracts in vivo are not well modeled by synthetic polypurine · polypyrimidines with one or two base pair repeating units.