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Review
. 2021 Aug 22;10(8):813.
doi: 10.3390/biology10080813.

Volumetric Properties of Four-Stranded DNA Structures

Tigran V Chalikian  1 , Robert B Macgregor Jr  1
Affiliations
Review

Volumetric Properties of Four-Stranded DNA Structures

Tigran V Chalikian et al. Biology (Basel). .

Abstract

Four-stranded non-canonical DNA structures including G-quadruplexes and i-motifs have been found in the genome and are thought to be involved in regulation of biological function. These structures have been implicated in telomere biology, genomic instability, and regulation of transcription and translation events. To gain an understanding of the molecular determinants underlying the biological role of four-stranded DNA structures, their biophysical properties have been extensively studied. The limited libraries on volume, expansibility, and compressibility accumulated to date have begun to provide insights into the molecular origins of helix-to-coil and helix-to-helix conformational transitions involving four-stranded DNA structures. In this article, we review the recent progress in volumetric investigations of G-quadruplexes and i-motifs, emphasizing how such data can be used to characterize intra-and intermolecular interactions, including solvation. We describe how volumetric data can be interpreted at the molecular level to yield a better understanding of the role that solute-solvent interactions play in modulating the stability and recognition events of nucleic acids. Taken together, volumetric studies facilitate unveiling the molecular determinants of biological events involving biopolymers, including G-quadruplexes and i-motifs, by providing one more piece to the thermodynamic puzzle describing the energetics of cellular processes in vitro and, by extension, in vivo.

Keywords: G-quadruplex; i-motif; pressure-temperature phase diagram; thermodynamics; volumetric properties.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Structure of a G-quartet with a coordinated ion; (b) Schematic representation of antiparallel, parallel, and hybrid intramolecular G-quadruplexes.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) A hemiprotonated cytosine-cytosine+ base pair; (b) Schematic representation of an i-motif structure.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The pressure-temperature phase diagram for the stability c-MYC G-quadruplex at 50 mM CsCl and 0.1 mM KCl computed with Equation (20) from ref. [99].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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