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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
. 1990 Apr;87(7):2526–2530. doi: 10.1073/pnas.87.7.2526

Molecular structure of nicked DNA: a substrate for DNA repair enzymes.

J Aymami 1, M Coll 1, G A van der Marel 1, J H van Boom 1, A H Wang 1, A Rich 1
PMCID: PMC53722  PMID: 2320572

Abstract

The molecular structure of a nicked dodecamer DNA double helix, made of a ternary system containing d(CGCGAAAACGCG) + d(CGCGTT) + d(TTCGCG) oligonucleotides, has been determined by x-ray diffraction analysis at 3 A resolution. The molecule adopts a B-DNA conformation, not unlike those found in intact dodecamer DNA molecules crystallized in a somewhat different crystal lattice, despite a gap due to the absence of a phosphate group in the molecule. The helix has a distinct narrow minor groove near the center of the molecule at the AAAA region. This suggests that the internal stabilizing forces due to base stacking and hydrogen-bonding interactions are sufficient to overcome the loss of connectivity associated with the disruption of the covalent backbone of DNA.

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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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