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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
. 1985 Jun;82(11):3611–3615. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.11.3611

Crystal structure of Z-DNA without an alternating purine-pyrimidine sequence.

A H Wang, R V Gessner, G A van der Marel, J H van Boom, A Rich
PMCID: PMC397835  PMID: 3858839

Abstract

In left-handed Z-DNA, consecutive nucleotides along the chain alternate in the syn and anti conformations. Purine residues form the syn conformation readily and up to now all Z-DNA crystal structures have sequences of alternating purines and pyrimidines. However, we find that d(C-G-A-T-C-G) with the cytosines brominated or methylated on C-5 crystallizes as Z-DNA. The structure reveals thymines in syn and adenines in anti conformations. This suggests that Z-DNA may occur in sequences other than those with alternating purine-pyrimidine sequence.

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Selected References

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