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Four highly pseudosymmetric and/or twinned structures of d(CGCGCG) 2 extend the repertoire of crystal structures of Z‐DNA
Author(s) -
Luo Zhipu,
Dauter Zbigniew,
Gilski Miroslaw
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
acta crystallographica section d
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.374
H-Index - 138
ISSN - 2059-7983
DOI - 10.1107/s2059798317014954
Subject(s) - repertoire , dna , crystallography , crystal (programming language) , materials science , evolutionary biology , chemistry , biology , physics , computer science , genetics , programming language , acoustics
DNA oligomer duplexes containing alternating cytosines and guanines in their sequences tend to form left‐handed helices of the Z‐DNA type, with the sugar and phosphate backbone in a zigzag conformation and a helical repeat of two successive nucleotides. Z‐DNA duplexes usually crystallize as hexagonally arranged parallel helical tubes, with various relative orientations and translation of neighboring duplexes. Four novel high‐resolution crystal structures of d(CGCGCG) 2 duplexes are described here. They are characterized by a high degree of pseudosymmetry and/or twinning, with three or four independent duplexes differently oriented in a monoclinic P 2 1 lattice of hexagonal metric. The various twinning criteria give somewhat conflicting indications in these complicated cases of crystal pathology. The details of molecular packing in these crystal structures are compared with other known crystal forms of Z‐DNA.