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Zintrons in rat α‐lactalbumin gene
Author(s) -
Meera G.,
Ramesh N.,
Brahmachari Samir K.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/0014-5793(89)81463-2
Subject(s) - dna supercoil , intron , gene , plasmid , dna , genetics , z dna , coding region , biology , genome , microbiology and biotechnology , dna replication
The eukaryotic genome is characterised by the occurrence of a large amount of repetitive DNA which exists within and around coding sequences. Random repeats of (TG) n sequences have been observed in several introns. In this paper we show that (TG) 14 and (TG) 24 sequences present in the third intron of rat α‐lactalbumin gene adopt left‐handed Z‐helices under varying superhelical densities. The overall sequence of the parent plasmid further influenced the level of supercoiling at which the B to Z transition could be induced in (TG) n sequences. Such Z‐potential intervening sequences (zintrons) could act as buffers to maintain desired levels of supercoiling near the transcribed sequences.