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Centromeric Alpha‐Satellite DNA Adopts Dimeric i‐Motif Structures Capped by AT Hoogsteen Base Pairs
Author(s) -
Garavís Miguel,
Escaja Núria,
Gabelica Valérie,
Villasante Alfredo,
González Carlos
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201500448
Subject(s) - centromere , dna , structural motif , base pair , monomer , protonation , tandem , chemistry , stereochemistry , satellite dna , motif (music) , crystallography , physics , gene , chromosome , biochemistry , materials science , ion , organic chemistry , acoustics , composite material , polymer
Human centromeric alpha‐satellite DNA is composed of tandem arrays of two types of 171 bp monomers; type A and type B. The differences between these types are concentrated in a 17 bp region of the monomer called the A/B box. Here, we have determined the solution structure of the C‐rich strand of the two main variants of the human alpha‐satellite A box. We show that, under acidic conditions, the C‐rich strands of two A boxes self‐recognize and form a head‐to‐tail dimeric i‐motif stabilized by four intercalated hemi‐protonated C:C + base pairs. Interestingly, the stack of C:C + base pairs is capped by T:T and Hoogsteen A:T base pairs. The two main variants of the A box adopt a similar three‐dimensional structure, although the residues involved in the formation of the i‐motif core are different in each case. Together with previous studies showing that the B box (known as the CENP‐B box) also forms dimeric i‐motif structures, our finding of this non‐canonical structure in the A box shows that centromeric alpha satellites in all human chromosomes are able to form i‐motifs, which consequently raises the possibility that these structures may play a role in the structural organization of the centromere.