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Oxford University Press, Nucleic Acids Research, p. gkv826, 2015

DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkv826

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Xanthine and 8-oxoguanine in G-quadruplexes: formation of a G·G·X·O tetrad

Journal article published in 2015 by Vee Cheong, Brahim Heddi, Christopher Jacques Lech, Anh Tuân Phan ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

G-quadruplexes are four-stranded structures built from stacked G-tetrads (G·G·G·G), which are planar cyclical assemblies of four guanine bases interacting through Hoogsteen hydrogen bonds. A G-quadruplex containing a single guanine analog substitution, such as 8-oxoguanine (O) or xanthine (X), would suffer from a loss of a Hoogsteen hydrogen bond within a G-tetrad and/or potential steric hindrance. We show that a proper arrangement of O and X bases can reestablish the hydrogen-bond pattern within a G·G·X·O tetrad. Rational incorporation of G·G·X·O tetrads in a (3+1) G-quadruplex demonstrated a similar folding topology and thermal stability to that of the unmodified G-quadruplex. pH titration conducted on X·O-modified G-quadruplexes indicated a protonation-deprotonation equilibrium of X with a pKa ∼6.7. The solution structure of a G-quadruplex containing a G·G·X·O tetrad was determined, displaying the same folding topology in both the protonated and deprotonated states. A G-quadruplex containing a deprotonated X·O pair was shown to exhibit a more electronegative groove compared to that of the unmodified one. These differences are likely to manifest in the electronic properties of G-quadruplexes and may have important implications for drug targeting and DNA-protein interactions.