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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1983 Apr;80(7):1821–1825. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.7.1821

The sequence (dC-dA)n X (dG-dT)n forms left-handed Z-DNA in negatively supercoiled plasmids.

A Nordheim, A Rich
PMCID: PMC393701  PMID: 6572943

Abstract

Z-DNA-specific antibodies have been used to demonstrate the formation of left-handed Z-DNA in sequences of (dC-dA)32 X (dG-dT)32 in negatively supercoiled plasmids. Z-DNA was found to form at physiological negative superhelical densities (sigma = -0.05) in the absence of high salt concentration or chemical modifications. The binding site of the antibody to the DNA sequences was demonstrated by crosslinking experiments. (dC-dA)n X (dG-dT)n sequences are widespread in eukaryotic DNA, and possible roles for such Z elements in chromatin activation or genome rearrangements are suggested.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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