Structure and Cooperative Interactions Between the Guanine Quadruplexes of the Promoter of Gallus gallus βA-Globin Gene

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Abstract

Guanine quadruplexes are nucleic acid secondary structures present in the genomes of all eukaryotes, from yeast to mammals, where they play an important role in maintaining telomere integrity, creating TAD boundaries, and regulating transcription, alternative splicing, and translation. It was found that, contributing to the formation of a nucleosome-free region, guanine quadruplexes formed by two G-rich motifs inside the replication origin that is located within the βA-globin promoter in Gallus gallus, are necessary for the initiation of replication. In our work, circular dichroism spectroscopy was used to study the structures and dynamic properties of guanine quadruplexes formed by the βA-globin promoter/origin sequence in vitro. The data obtained show that quadruplexes located on the same DNA fragment are formed cooperatively, influencing the structures of each other and the entire DNA fragment on which they are located. These data suggest that the structures of guanine quadruplexes may be determined by their genomic environment, and also help explain some of the properties of quadruplexes observed in vivo.

About the authors

E. V Marilovtseva

The Mental Health Research Center

Moscow, Russia

D. O Koshkina

Lomonosov Moscow State University; Institute of Gene Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences

Faculty of Biology Moscow, Russia; Moscow, Russia

A. V Feofanov

Lomonosov Moscow State University

Email: arfeofanov@yandex.ru
Faculty of Biology Moscow, Russia

V. M Studitsky

Lomonosov Moscow State University; Fox Chase Cancer Center

Email: vasily.snaditsky@fccc.edu
Faculty of Biology Moscow, Russia; Philadelphia, USA

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