Open AccessExtraordinarily stable mini-hairpins: electrophoretical and thermal properties of the various sequence variants of d(GCFAAAGC)and their effect on DNA sequencing
Author(s) -
Ichiro Hirao,
Yoshifumi Nishimura,
Yohichi Tagawa,
Kimitsuna Watanabe,
Kiyonori Miura
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
nucleic acids research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 9.008
H-Index - 537
eISSN - 1362-4954
pISSN - 0305-1048
DOI - 10.1093/nar/20.15.3891
Subject(s) - biology , dna , rna , sequence (biology) , dna sequencing , gel electrophoresis , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics , gene
A small DNA fragment having a characteristic sequence d(GCGAAAGC) has been shown to form an extraordinarily stable mini-hairpin structure and to have an unusually rapid mobility in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, even when containing 7M urea. Here, we have studied the stability of the various sequence variants of d(GCGAAAGC) and the corresponding RNA fragments. Many such sequence variants form stable mini-hairpins in a similar manner to the d(GCGAAAGC) sequence. The RNA fragment, r(GCGAAAGC) also forms a mini-hairpin structure with less stability. The DNA mini-hairpins with GAAA or GAA loop are much more stable than DNA and RNA mini-hairpins with other loop sequence so far as has been examined. The stability difference between DNA and RNA mini-hairpins may be deduced to the stem structures formed by DNA (B form) and RNA (A form). The stable hairpins consisting of the GCGAAAGC sequence cause strong band compression on the sequencing gel. This phenomenon should be carefully considered in DNA sequencing.