Bulged and Canonical G-Quadruplex Conformations Determine NDPK Binding Specificity

Bulged and Canonical G-Quadruplex Conformations Determine NDPK Binding Specificity

Blog Article

Guanine-rich DNA strands can adopt tertiary structures known as G-quadruplexes (G4s) that form when Collections Hoogsteen base-paired guanines assemble as planar stacks, stabilized by a central cation like K+.In this study, we investigated the conformational heterogeneity of a G-rich sequence from the 5′ untranslated region of the Zea mays hexokinase4 gene.This sequence adopted an extensively polymorphic G-quadruplex, including non-canonical bulged G-quadruplex folds that co-existed in solution.

The nature of this polymorphism depended, in part, on the incorporation of different sets of adjacent guanines into a quadruplex core, which permitted the formation of the different conformations.Additionally, we showed that the maize homolog of the human nucleoside diphosphate kinase (NDPK) NM23-H2 protein—ZmNDPK1—specifically recognizes and promotes formation of a subset of these conformations.Heteromorphic G-quadruplexes play a role in microorganisms’ ability to evade the host CRICKET PROTEIN VANILLA immune system, so we also discuss how the underlying properties that determine heterogeneity of this sequence could apply to microorganism G4s.