Investigation of Solution Structure of d(GAATTTAAATTC)2 by1H NMR, Molecular Dynamics, Mechanics, Refinement by Back-Calculation of the NOESY Spectrum and Analysis of This Structure Using X-ray Data

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1H NMR spectroscopy, restrained molecular mechanics and dynamics and refinements after back-calculation of the NOESY spectrum have been performed to study the structure of the d(GAATTTAAATTC)2 duplex and to determine whether it is bent or not. It is found that the duplex adopts a B-type conformation; all sugar conformations belong to the C2' endo region and purines have a larger pseudorotation angle as compared to pyrimidines. The cross-strand AH2(n)-AH1' (m + 1) distance (where (n) and (m) are complementary residues), crucial for an anomalous A/T tract structure, is large on the TA step and gradually decreases at the 3' and 5' ends of the TTTAAA tract and follows the rules proposed previously [Chuprina, V.P., Lipanov, A.A., Fedoroff, O.Yu, Kim, S.G., Kintanar, A., and Reid, B.R., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 88, 9087 (1991)]. The changes in this distance correlate with those in the T1 value for AH2 protons which we measured for several oligonucleotide sequences. A total number of about 250 interproton distance constraints were determined from NOESY spectra and were used for structure determination by molecular mechanics, dynamics and refinement by back-calculations. It is shown that these data are not enough to determine whether the duplex is bent or not. The whole family of B-type conformations including bent and straight structures fit well with the available NMR data. In principle, additional non-NMR data could be used in order to reduce the number of the allowable structures. The refinement of the structures with additional different non-NMR constraints (used as a driving force) on P-P or H1'-H1' minor groove width distances in the TA region shows a very good correlation between these distances and the angle of bending of the dodecamer. The more the minor groove width increases in the TA region the more the duplex is bent at the major groove of this region. On the other hand, there is also a very good correlation between P-P, H1'-H1' and AH2-H1' cross-strand distances as follows from analysis of X-ray B-type structures. These two correlations, together with the increased AH2-H1' cross-strand NMR distance in the TA region of the dodecamer indicate that the duplex should be characterized by a wider minor groove in the TA region and be bent in the major groove in this region.