Open AccessThe role of a minor groove spine of hydration in stabilizing poly(dA). poly(dT) against fuctuational interbase H-bond disruption in the premelting temperature regime
Author(s) -
Yu Zong Chen,
E. W. Prohofsky
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/20.3.415
Subject(s) - premelting , spine (molecular biology) , groove (engineering) , biology , base pair , base (topology) , sequence (biology) , thymine , crystallography , biophysics , dna , materials science , biochemistry , bioinformatics , chemistry , mathematics , composite material , mathematical analysis , melting point , metallurgy
Experimental estimates of the premelting Adenine-Thymine base pair opening probability for some B-DNA sequences are two orders of magnitude smaller than those of other B-DNA sequences. The AT pairs in the sequence with smaller open probability seem to be those that have a well defined spine of hydration in the minor groove. We show that this spine of hydration can significantly enhance the thermal stability of the base pairs to which they are attached. The effect of this spine of hydration coupled with the possible stabilization effect contributed from neighboring GC pairs can explain the differences in the observed AT pair opening probability for different AT containing B-DNA sequences.