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. 1991 Aug 25;19(16):4491–4496. doi: 10.1093/nar/19.16.4491

Unusual conformation of (dA)n.(dT)n-tracts as revealed by cyclobutane thymine-thymine dimer formation.

V Lyamichev 1
PMCID: PMC328639  PMID: 1886772

Abstract

Cyclobutane dimer formation has been used to probe conformation of (dA)n.(dT)n-tracts cloned in plasmid DNA. The observed dimer probability patterns for (dA)n.(dT)n-tracts with n greater than or equal to 4 exhibit maximum intensity at the 3'-terminal TT site of Tn-tract, whereas photoreactivity at all the other TT sites is inhibited. Both the temperature and dimethyl sulfoxide increase dimer formation within Tn-tracts and result in an even dimer pattern. The data obtained have been interpreted in terms of an unusual structure adopted by (dA)n.(dT)n-tracts. An influence of flanking base pairs, ethidium bromide binding and ionic strength has also been studied.

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