Fluorescent Adenine Analogue Research Articles

A DNA Aptamer for 2-Aminopurine: Binding-Induced Fluorescence Quenching.

2-Aminopurine (2AP) is a fluorescent analog of adenine, and its unique properties make it valuable in various biochemical and biotechnological applications. Its fluorescence property probes local dynamics in DNA and RNA because stacking with the surrounding bases quench its fluorescence. 2AP-labeled DNA or RNA sequences have been used for the detection of genetic mutations, viral RNA, or other nucleic acid-based markers associated with diseases like cancer and infectious diseases. In this study, we isolated aptamers for 2AP using the library immobilization capture-SELEX technique. A dominating aptamer family was isolated after 15 rounds of selection. The Kd values for the most abundant 2AP1 aptamer are 209 nM in a fluorescence assay and 72 nM in an isothermal titration calorimetry test. A 32 nM 2AP limit of detection was tested based on its intrinsic fluorescence change upon aptamer binding. Additionally, we conducted some mutation analysis. Furthermore, we tested the selectivity of this aptamer and discovered that it can bind adenine and adenosine with approximately 100-fold lower affinity than 2AP.

Metabolic RNA labeling in non-engineered cells following spontaneous uptake of fluorescent nucleoside phosphate analogues.

RNA and its building blocks play central roles in biology and have become increasingly important as therapeutic agents and targets. Hence, probing and understanding their dynamics in cells is important. Fluorescence microscopy offers live-cell spatiotemporal monitoring but requires labels. We present two fluorescent adenine analogue nucleoside phosphates which show spontaneous uptake and accumulation in cultured human cells, likely via nucleoside transporters, and show their potential utilization as cellular RNA labels. Upon uptake, one nucleotide analogue, 2CNqAXP, localizes to the cytosol and the nucleus. We show that it could then be incorporated into de novo synthesized cellular RNA, i.e.it was possible to achieve metabolic fluorescence RNA labeling without using genetic engineering to enhance incorporation, uptake-promoting strategies, or post-labeling through bio-orthogonal chemistries. By contrast, another nucleotide analogue, pAXP, only accumulated outside of the nucleus and was rapidly excreted. Consequently, this analogue did not incorporate into RNA. This difference in subcellular accumulation and retention results from a minor change in nucleobase chemical structure. This demonstrates the importance of careful design of nucleoside-based drugs, e.g. antivirals to direct their subcellular localization, and shows the potential of fine-tuning fluorescent base analogue structures to enhance the understanding of the function of such drugs.

An exonuclease I-assisted quencher-free 2-aminopurine aptasensor based on a multipath paper-based device for ultrasensitive detection of kanamycin

A quencher-free multipath microfluidic paper-based analytical device (µPAD) was constructed for ultrasensitive detection of kanamycin based on exonuclease I (Exo I)-assisted signal enhancement of 2-aminopurine (2-AP). Here, Exo I, a single-stranded DNA-specific nuclease, was introduced to fully liberate 2-AP mononucleotides to greatly enhance biosensing sensitivity. 2-AP, a fluorescent adenine analogue embedded in single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), was employed as the detection signal source. The fluorescence of 2-AP is strong in the mononucleotide state, while it can have low fluorescence and even no fluorescence in ssDNA and dsDNA, respectively. The 2-AP fluorescence probe included 2-AP DNA and kanamycin aptamer. When kanamycin was present, binding occurred between kanamycin and the aptamer, leading to ssDNA, which was further digested by Exo I. In this case, free 2-AP mononucleotides were liberated, indicating strong fluorescence. In addition, the captured kanamycin was released for binding with the new aptamer, which resulted in the formation of a binding-hydrolysis-release cycle with the aid of Exo I. Under optimal conditions, this µPAD exhibited sensitive and multipath detection of kanamycin at concentrations as low as 1.26 × 10−14 M with a wide range of 10−13–10−7 M. Furthermore, satisfactory results were achieved for analysing spiked kanamycin in milk and honey samples. This strategy is a very promising tool for monitoring antibiotics and evaluating the safety of animal-derived foods.

Probing and perturbing riboswitch folding using a fluorescent base analogue.

Riboswitches are mRNA segments that regulate gene expression in response to ligand binding. The Class I preQ1 riboswitch consists of a stem-loop and an adenine-rich single-stranded tail ("L3"), which adopt a pseudoknot structure upon binding of the ligand preQ1 . We inserted 2-aminopurine (2-AP), a fluorescent analogue of adenine (A), into the riboswitch at six different positions within L3. Here, 2-AP functions both as a spectroscopic probe and as a "mutation" that reveals how alteration of specific A residues impacts the riboswitch. Using fluorescence and circular dichroism spectroscopy, we found that 2-AP decreases the affinity of the riboswitch for preQ1 at all labeling positions tested, although modified and unmodified variants undergo the same global conformational changes at sufficiently high preQ1 concentration. 2-AP substitution is most detrimental to ligand binding at sites proximal to the ligand-binding pocket, while distal labeling sites exhibit the largest impacts on the stability of the L3 domain in the absence of ligand. Insertion of multiple 2-AP residues does not induce significant additional disruptions. Our results show that interactions involving the A residues in L3 play a critical role in ligand recognition by the preQ1 riboswitch and that 2-AP substitution exerts complex and varied impacts on this riboswitch.

Highly Fluorescent 2‐Aminopurine Derivatives: Synthesis, Photo‐physical Characterization, and Preliminary Cytotoxicity Evaluation

AbstractNew fluorescent nucleobase analogues (FBAs) are emerging as extraordinarily useful tools for DNA labelling technologies. The highly fluorescent adenine analogue 2‐aminopurine (2AP) is still the most used within the few hundreds of newly FBAs synthesized, but its excitation in the UV region demands for high energy sources endangering living cells. New and highly fluorescent 2AP derivatives, 2‐amino‐6‐cyanopurines, were obtained using simpler but efficient synthesis method. All the new compounds exhibit advantageous photophysical properties over 2AP, showing absorption and emission bands ranging the visible region (blue‐green region), high fluorescence quantum yields and Stokes’ shifts, especially in non‐protic organic solvents. Density Functional Theory calculations (DFT) of electronic and vibrational structure were performed, allowing to predict absorption and emission spectra. In addition, these 2‐amino‐6‐cyanopurines exhibit little to no toxicity in assays using yeast cells.

Base-Stacking Heterogeneity in RNA Resolved by Fluorescence-Detected Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy.

RNA plays a critical role in many biological processes, and the structures it adopts are intimately linked to those functions. Among many factors that contribute to RNA folding, van der Waals interactions between adjacent nucleobases stabilize structures in which the bases are stacked on top of one another. Here, we utilize fluorescence-detected circular dichroism spectroscopy (FDCD) to investigate base-stacking heterogeneity in RNA labeled with the fluorescent adenine analogue 2-aminopurine (2-AP). Comparison of standard (transmission-detected) CD and FDCD spectra reveals that in dinucleotides, 2-AP fluorescence is emitted almost exclusively by unstacked molecules. In a trinucleotide, some fluorescence is emitted by a population of stacked and highly quenched molecules, but more than half originates from a minor ∼10% population of unstacked molecules. The combination of FDCD and standard CD measurements reveals the prevalence of stacked and unstacked conformational subpopulations as well as their relative fluorescence quantum yields.

The oxidation of guanine by photoionized 2-aminopurine

2-Aminopurine (2AP) is a fluorescent nucleobase analogue of the DNA nucleobase adenine and can be inserted in place of adenine into nucleic acids with minimal structural perturbation. The inserted 2-aminopurine can be selectively excited, and the fluorescence observed used as a sensitive probe for local structure, in addition selective ionization of 2-aminopurine within a nucleic acid is possible and once formed the ionized 2-aminopurine will oxidize nearby guanine bases, providing a route to study charge transfer within nucleic acids. Time resolved infrared spectroscopy is a powerful tool to study oxidation processes on picosecond, and longer timescales. There is a lack of availability of high quality IR spectra in the literature of the individual, short lived, photoproducts, required to fully elucidate the mechanism of the interaction of photoionized 2-aminopurine with guanine. Density functional theory (DFT) methods (B3LYP/6–31G+(d) and EDF1/6–31G+(d)) have been used to calculate the energies and infrared spectra of 2-aminopurine, guanine and potential photoproducts that may result from photoionization reactions between 2-aminopurine and guanine. Direct comparison can therefore be made between areas of bleaching of bands in the IR spectra of 2-aminopurine or guanine and the appearance of new transient bands of potential photoproducts. These potential photoproducts could include deprotonated neutral radical species, deprotonated anion species, radical cations and radical anions. It was found in the current work that the key intermediates in the oxidation reaction between photoionized 2-aminopurine and guanine were: 2AP•(− H ,N2) (formed from deprotonation from the 2AP •+ amino group); G•(− H ) (formed from deprotonation from the N1 nitrogen, or possibly the amino group, of the initially formed G •+ ), and 2AP − (− H ,N2) (formed from the reduction of 2AP•(− H ,N2) by guanine).

Unraveling the B to A Conformational Transition in Duplex DNA at Single Base Pair Resolution

DNA shows conformational heterogeneity and the interest in non‐canonical DNA conformations is increasing as these conformers are found to be involved in many important biological process. Although triple helices, quadruple helices and supercoils are the most studied structures, the conformational transition of the standard B‐form DNA helix to A‐form DNA was the first observed one. The transition of B‐DNA double helix to A‐form is essential for biological functions as recognized by the presence of A‐form DNA in many protein‐DNA complexes. Even though it is known that the B to A conformational transition occurs, the specifics like where in the DNA it originates, how it propagates, and the detailed step‐by‐step mechanism involved is still unknown. By using site specifically positioned fluorescent oligonucleotides, we explored the local and global conformational changes in this transition. Our results showed that by using 2‐Aminopurine (2‐AP), a fluorescent analogue of Adenine, we could monitor the local and global conformational change simultaneously. As a next step our aim is to introduce spermine or spermidine to the system at different ethanol percentages and monitor the spectral changes at various intervals of this transition. This will help us to understand the fundamentals of the long known B to A DNA conformational transition.

Lighting Up DNA with the Environment-Sensitive Bright Adenine Analogue qAN4.

The fluorescent adenine analogue qAN4 was recently shown to possess promising photophysical properties, including a high brightness as a monomer. Here we report the synthesis of the phosphoramidite of qAN4 and its successful incorporation into DNA oligonucleotides using standard solid-phase synthesis. Circular dichroism and thermal melting studies indicate that the qAN4-modification has a stabilizing effect on the B-form of DNA. Moreover, qAN4 base-pairs selectively with thymine with mismatch penalties similar to those of mismatches of adenine. The low energy absorption band of qAN4 inside DNA has its peak around 358 nm and the emission in duplex DNA is partly quenched and blue-shifted (ca. 410 nm), compared to the monomeric form. The spectral properties of the fluorophore also show sensitivity to pH; a property that may find biological applications. Quantum yields in single-stranded DNA range from 1-29 % and in duplex DNA from 1-7 %. In combination with the absorptive properties, this gives an average brightness inside duplex DNA of 275 M-1 cm-1 , more than five times higher than the most used environment-sensitive fluorescent base analogue, 2-aminopurine. Finally, we show that qAN4 can be used to advantage as a donor for interbase FRET applications in combination with adenine analogue qAnitro as an acceptor.

Coordination Nanoparticles Formed by Fluorescent 2-Aminopurine and Au3+: Stability and Nanozyme Activities

Nucleobase–metal coordination polymers (CPs) have been the target of much recent research owing their interesting properties and ease of preparation. Natural nucleobases are nonfluorescent, and 2-aminopurine (2AP) is a strongly fluorescent analog of adenine. In this work, we compared the CPs formed by adenine, 2AP and adenosine with various metals. Only Au3+ produced CP nanoparticles with both adenine and 2AP. Both products were similar in terms of size, suggesting that the position of the exocyclic amine is unimportant for coordination with gold. Since 2AP is fluorescent, the dissolution of the nanoparticles in the presence of various chemicals including KCN, GSH, iodide, bromide and chloride, was studied and compared to fluorescent adenosine–Au nanoparticles. It appears that the 2AP CP was more robust than the adenosine one since even chloride can quench the fluorescence of the adenosine/Au complex. Finally, the adenine and 2AP nanoparticles exhibited weak oxidase-like activity for oxidation of TMB possibly by the Au3+ exposed on the surface.

Efficient intersystem crossing in 2-aminopurine riboside probed by femtosecond time-resolved transient vibrational absorption spectroscopy.

The photophysical dynamics of 2-aminopurine riboside (2APr) in CHCl3 have been studied following excitation at λpump = 310 nm by means of femtosecond transient vibrational absorption spectroscopy (TVAS) aided by quantum chemical density functional theory (DFT) and ab initio calculations. The experiments identified numerous vibrational marker bands in the regions of the NH2 stretch and the 2AP ring vibrations which could be assigned to the bleach of the S0 electronic ground state (GS) and to transient populations in the 1ππ* and 3ππ* excited electronic states. The temporal evolution of the transient vibrational bands shows that the decay of the 1ππ* population is accompanied by a partial recovery of the GS and a concurrent population of the 3ππ* state with a time constant of τ2 = 740 ± 15 ps. The ensuing electronic relaxation is concluded to proceed via the 1nπ* state as intermediate state. The absence of observable transient vibrational bands of this state hints at an upper limit for its lifetime of τ < 100 ps. The triplet quantum yield is found to be φT = 0.42 ± 0.07.

Site-Specific Fluorescence Dynamics To Probe Polar Arrest by Fob1 in Replication Fork Barrier Sequences.

Fob1 protein plays an important role in aging and maintains genomic stability by avoiding clashes between the replication and transcription machinery. It facilitates polar arrest by binding to replication fork barrier (RFB) sites, present within the nontranscribed spacer region of the ribosomal DNA. Here, we investigate the mechanism of unidirectional arrest by creating multiple prosthetic forks within the RFB, with fluorescent adenine analogue 2-aminopurine incorporated site-specifically in both the “permissible” and “nonpermissible” directions. The motional dynamics of the RFB-Fob1 complexes analyzed by fluorescence lifetime and fluorescence anisotropy decay kinetics shows that Fob1 adopts a clamp-lock model of arrest and causes stronger perturbation with the bases in the double-stranded region of the nonpermissible-directed forks over those of the permissible directed ones, thereby creating a polar barrier. Corroborative thermal melting studies reveal a skewed distribution of GC content within the RFB sequence that potentially assists in Fob1-mediated arrest.

A highly specific sodium aptamer probed by 2-aminopurine for robust Na+ sensing.

Sodium is one of the most abundant metals in the environment and in biology, playing critical ecological and physiological roles. Na+ is also the most common buffer salt for nucleic acids research, while its specific interaction with DNA has yet to be fully studied. Herein, we probe a highly selective and robust Na+ aptamer using 2-aminopurine (2AP), a fluorescent adenine analog. This aptamer has two DNA strands derived from the Ce13d DNAzyme. By introducing a 2AP at the cleavage site of the substrate strand, Na+ induces ∼40% fluorescence increase. The signaling is improved by a series of rational mutations, reaching >600% with the C10A20 double mutant. This fluorescence enhancement suggests relaxed base stacking near the 2AP label upon Na+ binding. By replacing a non-conserved adenine in the enzyme strand by 2AP, Na+-dependent fluorescence quenching is observed, suggesting that the enzyme loop folds into a more compact structure upon Na+ binding. The fluorescence changes allow for Na+ detection. With an optimized sequence, a detection limit of 0.4 mM Na+ is achieved, reaching saturated signal in less than 10 s. The sensor response is insensitive to ionic strength, which is critical for Na+ detection.

Fluorescence-Based Strategies to Investigate the Structure and Dynamics of Aptamer-Ligand Complexes.

In addition to the helical nature of double-stranded DNA and RNA, single-stranded oligonucleotides can arrange themselves into tridimensional structures containing loops, bulges, internal hairpins and many other motifs. This ability has been used for more than two decades to generate oligonucleotide sequences, so-called aptamers, that can recognize certain metabolites with high affinity and specificity. More recently, this library of artificially-generated nucleic acid aptamers has been expanded by the discovery that naturally occurring RNA sequences control bacterial gene expression in response to cellular concentration of a given metabolite. The application of fluorescence methods has been pivotal to characterize in detail the structure and dynamics of these aptamer-ligand complexes in solution. This is mostly due to the intrinsic high sensitivity of fluorescence methods and also to significant improvements in solid-phase synthesis, post-synthetic labeling strategies and optical instrumentation that took place during the last decade. In this work, we provide an overview of the most widely employed fluorescence methods to investigate aptamer structure and function by describing the use of aptamers labeled with a single dye in fluorescence quenching and anisotropy assays. The use of 2-aminopurine as a fluorescent analog of adenine to monitor local changes in structure and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) to follow long-range conformational changes is also covered in detail. The last part of the review is dedicated to the application of fluorescence techniques based on single-molecule microscopy, a technique that has revolutionized our understanding of nucleic acid structure and dynamics. We finally describe the advantages of monitoring ligand-binding and conformational changes, one molecule at a time, to decipher the complexity of regulatory aptamers and summarize the emerging folding and ligand-binding models arising from the application of these single-molecule FRET microscopy techniques.

Base flipping in open complex formation at bacterial promoters.

In the process of transcription initiation, the bacterial RNA polymerase binds double-stranded (ds) promoter DNA and subsequently effects strand separation of 12 to 14 base pairs (bp), including the start site of transcription, to form the so-called “open complex” (also referred to as RPo). This complex is competent to initiate RNA synthesis. Here we will review the role of σ70 and its homologs in the strand separation process, and evidence that strand separation is initiated at the −11A (the A of the non-template strand that is 11 bp upstream from the transcription start site) of the promoter. By using the fluorescent adenine analog, 2-aminopurine, it was demonstrated that the −11A on the non-template strand flips out of the DNA helix and into a hydrophobic pocket where it stacks with tyrosine 430 of σ70. Open complexes are remarkably stable, even though in vivo, and under most experimental conditions in vitro, dsDNA is much more stable than its strand-separated form. Subsequent structural studies of other researchers have confirmed that in the open complex the −11A has flipped into a hydrophobic pocket of σ70. It was also revealed that RPo was stabilized by three additional bases of the non-template strand being flipped out of the helix and into hydrophobic pockets, further preventing re-annealing of the two complementary DNA strands.

RNA Pseudoknot Folding Energy Landscape Elucidated with T-Jump Measurements and Kinetic Modeling

Pseudoknots are minimal tertiary motifs in RNA that are involved in many biological functions determined by their structure, stability and dynamics. They also stabilize the structures of several ribozymes and are often the rate-limiting step in their folding pathways. Although many studies have reported on pseudoknot stability, and theoretical and computational studies have proposed folding pathways for some pseudoknots, there are few experimental studies on pseudoknot folding kinetics. Therefore, a complete picture of how pseudoknots fold to achieve their functional structure is lacking.Here, we report folding kinetics of the VPK pseudoknot, a variant of the Mouse Mammary Tumor Virus (MMTV) pseudoknot, which is involved in ribosomal frameshifting. We combine rapid temperature-jump (T-jump) with time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy, and global analysis of equilibrium and kinetics measurements, to elucidate the folding energy landscape. We use 2AP (a fluorescent analog of adenine) placed at different positons along the RNA sequence as a probe of RNA conformations, both under equilibrium conditions and in response to the T-jump perturbation. We also, independently, measure the equilibrium and folding kinetics of two hairpin structures that are believed to be intermediates in the folding pathways. The complete set of equilibrium and kinetics measurements on the pseudoknot and the two hairpins are described in a self-consistent manner in terms of a 4-state kinetic model and a minimal set of parameters. Our results provide the first experimental evidence of multiple parallel folding/unfolding pathways in RNA pseudoknots, as indicated by previous simulations studies.

Effect of NH2 rotation on the fluorescence of 2-aminopurine in solution

Since the introduction of 2-aminopurine (2AP) in 1969 as a fluorescent analogue of adenine, its intense fluorescence in aqueous solution and the subsequent reduction of this intensity in DNA has been a powerful tool for studies of structural changes in DNA. Herein, we show that the unusual intense fluorescence of 2AP in water is attributed to the formation of a closed complex between one water molecule and 2AP in the excited state. This configuration restricts the rotation of the 2-NH2 group which subsequently lowers the nonradiative decay rate. We supported this finding by attaching heavy masses to the amino group, dimethyl (2-(N(Me)2)) and diethyl (2-(N(Et)2)). By examining the fluorescence behavior in dioxane (an apolar, aprotic solvent), the lighter NH2 group can rotate in the excited state more freely which enhances the nonradiative loss of fluorescence. On the other hand, this rotation slows down sharply in the two heavy-group derivatives, leading to a restoration of the fluorescence intensity and lifetime very close to that of 2AP in water. Depletion of fluorescence was observed in the 2AP derivatives in water and is attributed to the population of a twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) state due to the strong electron donating power of the NR2 groups, an effect that is absent for the parent 2AP.

Solution conformation of 2-aminopurine dinucleotide determined by ultraviolet two-dimensional fluorescence spectroscopy

We have observed the conformation-dependent electronic coupling between the monomeric subunits of a dinucleotide of 2-aminopurine (2-AP), a fluorescent analogue of the nucleic acid base adenine. This was accomplished by extending two-dimensional fluorescence spectroscopy (2D FS)—a fluorescence-detected variation of 2D electronic spectroscopy—to excite molecular transitions in the ultraviolet (UV) regime. A collinear sequence of four ultrafast laser pulses centered at 323 nm was used to resonantly excite the coupled transitions of 2-AP dinucleotide. The phases of the optical pulses were continuously swept at kilohertz frequencies, and the ensuing nonlinear fluorescence was phase-synchronously detected at 370 nm. Upon optimization of a point–dipole coupling model to our data, we found that in aqueous buffer the 2-AP dinucleotide adopts an average conformation in which the purine bases are non-helically stacked (center-to-center distance R12 = 3.5 ± 0.5 Å , twist angle θ12 = 5° ± 5° ), which differs from the conformation of such adjacent bases in duplex DNA. These experiments establish UV–2D FS as a method for examining the local conformations of an adjacent pair of fluorescent nucleotides substituted into specific DNA or RNA constructs, which will serve as a powerful probe to interpret, in structural terms, biologically significant local conformational changes within the nucleic acid framework of protein–nucleic acid complexes.

Theoretical study of the ground and excited state properties of newly designed size-expanded adenine analogue x-adenine

Recently, creating unnatural fluorescent nucleobase analogues has gained increasing attention. In this work, a detailed computational investigation on the photophysical properties of the fluorescent adenine analogue x-adenine (xA) is carried out. The ten lowest low-lying exited states are analyzed and assigned. The effects of methanol solution, linking to deoxyribose, and base pairing on its absorption and emission processes are considered. The calculated excitation and emission energies are in good agreement with the measured data available. It is found that linking to deoxyribose and methanol solution have a hyperchromic effect on xA. Also it is found that methanol solution and linking to deoxyribose will lead to the red shift of fluorescence, while base pairing does not have obvious effects on the lowest ππ* state and fluorescence emission but produces the blue shift of lowest nπ* to some extent.

Impact of base pair identity 5′ to the spliceosomal branch site adenosine on branch site conformation

The branch site helix from Saccharomyces cerevisiae with pseudouridine (ψ) incorporated in a phylogenetically conserved position of U2 snRNA features an extrahelical branch site adenosine (A) that forms a base triple interaction with the minor groove edge of a widely conserved purine(U2 strand)-pyrimidine(intron strand) (R(U2)-Y(intron)) base pair two positions upstream. In these studies, NMR spectra of a duplex in which 2-aminopurine (2ap), a fluorescent analog of adenine lacking the proposed hydrogen bond donor, was substituted for the branch site A, indicated that the substitution does not alter the extrahelical position of the branch site residue; thus, it appears that a hydrogen bond between the adenine amino group and the R-Y pair is not obligatory for stabilization of the extrahelical conformation. In contrast, reversal of the orientation of A(U2)-U(intron) to U(U2)-A(intron) resulted in an intrahelical position for the branch site A or 2ap. Fluorescence intensity of 2ap substituted for the branch site A with the original R(U2)-Y(intron) orientation (AU or GC) was high, consistent with an extrahelical position, whereas fluorescence in helices with the reversed R-Y orientation, or with a mismatched pair (A-U → G•A or U•C), was markedly quenched, implying that the residue was stacked in the helix. The A 5' to the branch site residue was not extrahelical in any of the duplexes. These findings suggest that the R(U2)-Y(intron) base pair orientation in the ψ-dependent branch site helix plays an important role in positioning the branch site A for recognition and/or function.