User:Adithya Sagar/Sandbox DNA

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FeaturesFeatures

Double HelixDouble Helix

DNA consists of two polynucleotide chains, twisted around each other to form a double helix. The nucleotide in DNA is composed of of a 5' phosphorylated sugar, beta-D-2'- deoxyribose and a purine or a pyrimidine base. The four types of bases are the two double ringed purine base Adenine (A) and Guanine (G) and the two single pyrimidine bases Thymine (T) and Cytosine (C). Each nucleotide in a DNA chain is linked to another via 3',5' phosphodiester bond. There are four nucleotides in DNA. The sugar-phosphate backbone of the DNA is very regular owing the phosphodiester linkage whereas the ordering of bases is highly irregular.

Complementary BasesComplementary Bases

The two chains in a DNA are joined by hydrogen bonds between specific bases. Adenine forms a base pairs with Thymine and Guanine with Cytosine. This specific base pairing between Adenine-Thymine and Guanine-Cytosine is known as Watson-Crick base pairing. The specificity of hydrogen bonding between bases leads to complementarity in the sequence of nucleotides in the two chains. Thus in a strand of DNA the content of Adenine is equal to that of Thymine and the Guanine content is equal to the cytosine content. In general DNA with higher GC content is more stable than the one with higher AT content owing to the stabilization due to base stacking interactions.

DNA denaturation and renaturationDNA denaturation and renaturation

A DNA double strand can be separated into two single strands by breaking the hydrogen bonds between them. This is known as DNA denaturation. Thermal energy provided by heating can be used to melt or denature DNA. Molecules with rich GC content are more stable and thus denature at higher temperatures compared to the ones with higher AT content. The melting temperature is defined as the temperature at which half the DNA strands are in double helical state and half are in random coil state. [Santa Lucia -chk . The denatured DNA single strands have an ability to renature and form double stranded DNA again.

GroovesGrooves

In a DNA double helix the beta-glycosyl bonds between C_1'- N₁ branch off from one side of the base pair and do not lie opposite to each other. This results in unequally spaced sugar-phosphate backbones and gives rise to two grooves of different width and depth. The minor groove is at the O₂ side of base pair and the major groove is on the opposite side [Saenger]. The floor of major groove is filled with nitrogen and oxygen atoms that project inward whereas in the minor groove they project outward. The larger size of major groove allows for the binding of DNA specific proteins.

Tautomeric forms of basesTautomeric forms of bases

The hydrogen atoms on the bases move from nitrogen or oxygen atom on ring to another through shifts known as tautomeric shits. However the hydrogens have preferred atomic locations. Based on the movement of hydrogen atoms the nitrogen atoms are in amino or imino configuration and the oxygen atoms are either in keto or enol forms. However there is a preference for the amino and keto forms respectively. This is very crucial for the biological functioning of DNA as this preference leads to the specificity in base pairing and thus complementarity of the chains.

Forms of DNAForms of DNA

See Also: Z-DNA

DNA is a very flexible molecule and has the ability to exist in various forms based on the environmental conditions. Naturally occurring DNA double helices are classified into A, B and Z-types. A and B-forms of DNA are the right handed forms whereas Z-DNA is the left handed form. When hydrated the DNA generally assumes B-form. The A conformation is found when there is little water to interact with the helix. The formation of Z-DNA occurs with the methylation of deoxycytosine residues and also during transcription where negative supercoiling stabilizes it.

Parameter	A-DNA	B-DNA	Z-DNA
Helix sense	right-handed	right-handed	left-handed
Residues per turn	11	10.5	12
Axial rise [Å]	2.55	3.4	3.7
Helix pitch(°)	28	34	45
Base pair tilt(°)	20	−6	7
Rotation per residue (°)	33	36	-30
Diameter of helix [Å]	23	20	18
Glycosidic bond configuration<br\>dA,dT,dC<br\>dG	<br\>anti<br\>anti	<br\>anti<br\>anti	<br\>anti<br\>syn
Sugar pucker<br\>dA,dT,dC<br\>dG	<br\>C3'-endo<br\>C3'-endo	<br\> C2'-endo<br\>C2'-endo	<br\>C2'-endo<br\>C3'-endo
Intrastrand phosphate-phosphate distance [Å] <br\>dA,dT,dC<br\>dG	<br\>5.9<br\>5.9	<br\>7.0<br\>7.0	<br\>7.0<br\> 5.9
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