The studies presented here use the B- to Z-DNA transition and Z-DNA
crystallization as model systems to determine the contribution of solvent interactions to
macromolecular structures. The substituent groups of naturally occurring and modified
nucleotide bases affect the hydration and thus the stability of right-handed B-DNA and
left-handed Z-DNA. The...
DNA four-way junctions (also known as Holliday junctions) are the primary structural intermediate during recombination, an important process responsible for biological evolution and maintenance of genomes. These junctions arise from the assembly of four nucleic acid strands to produce double-helical regions extending from a central point. Although much progress has...
The binding of fifteen hydrocarbons to native DNA
has been investigated. The hydrocarbons were chosen to
test a size criterion for hydrocarbon - DNA complexes. It
has been found that hydrocarbons, which are small enough
to intercalate between the base pairs of a distorted Watson -
Crick model of DNA,...
The question of how the presence of nucleosomal
packing of DNA modifies carcinogen interaction at
specific sites cannot be answered by studies on whole
chromatin or bulk nucleosomes because of the
heterogeneity of DNA sequences in the particles. This
problem was circumvented by constructing nucleosomes that
are homogenous in DNA-histone...