Base pairs of DNA

In the human cell there are 23 pairs of chromosomes containing approximately 3000 million base pairs of DNA. Short sequences of DNA, perhaps with as few as 20 nucleotide units and sometimes radiolabeled, can be obtained either by chemical synthesis (gene machine) or from cloning. These short sequences can be used to probe for a complementary sequence by looking for the position to which they bind to any DNA sample under investigation, from blood for example. Such probes can detect as little as 100 fg of DNA and are the basis of forensic genetic fingerprinting tests. 

Figure 12.16), can insert between the stacked base pairs of DNA. The bases are forced apart to accommodate these so-called intercalating agents, causing an unwinding of the helix to a more ladderlike structure. The deoxyribose-phosphate backbone is almost fully extended as successive base pairs are displaced 0.7 nm from one another, and the rotational angle about the helix axis between adjacent base pairs is reduced from 36° to 10°. 

Chromatin is composed of nucleosomes, where each comprise 147 base pairs of DNA wrapped around an octamer oftwo copies of each histone H2A, H2B, H3, and H4. Nucleosomes are folded into higher-order structures that are stabilized by linker histones. Chromatin structure can be altered by enzymes that posttranslationally modify histones (e.g., through phosphorylation, acetylation, methylation, or ubiquitination) or by ATP-driven chromatin-remodeling complexes that alter nucleosome position and/or composition. 

Histones are small, basic proteins required to condense DNA into chromatin. They have been first described and named in 1884 by Albrecht Kossel. There are five main histones HI, H2A, H2B, H3 andH4. An octamer of core histones H2A, H2B, H3 andH4 is located inside a nucleosome, the central building block of chromatin, with about 150 base pairs of DNA wrapped around. The basic nature of histones, mediated by the high content of lysine and arginine residues, allows a direct interaction with the acidic phosphate back bone of DNA. The fifth histone HI is located outside at the junction between nucleosomes and is referred to as the linker histone. Besides the main histones, so-called histone variants are known, which replace core histones in certain locations like centromers. 

The nucleosome represents the first level of DNA condensation and is the basic building block of all chromatin structures. It was discovered in 1973 and consists of a central histone octamer with about 150 base pairs of DNA wrapped around. 

Fig. 3.2 Pairing rules for polyamide recognition of all four Watson—Crick base pairs of DNA. Putative hydrogen bonds are shown as dashed lines. Circles with dots represent lone pairs of N(3) of purines and 0(2) of pyrimi-...

Weyermann, P. and P.B. Dervan. Recognition of ten base pairs of DNA by head-to-head hairpin dimers. J. Am. 

The 3x10 base pairs of DNA in humans are organized into the haploid complement of 23 chromosomes. The exact sequence of these 3 billion nucleotides defines the uniqueness of each individual. 

Figure 36-2. Model for the structure of the nucleosome, in which DNA is wrapped around the surface of a flat protein cylinder consisting of two each of histones H2A, H2B, H3, and H4 that form the histone octamer. The 146 base pairs of DNA, consisting of 1.75 superhelical turns, are in contact with the histone octamer. This protects the DNA from digestion by a nuclease. The position of histone HI, when it is present, is indicated by the dashed outline at the bottom of the figure.

Rephcation errors, even with a very efficient repair system, lead to the accumulation of mutations. A human has 10 nucleated cells each with 3 X 10 base pairs of DNA. If about 10 cell divisions occur in a lifetime and 10 mutations per base pair per cell generation escape repair, there may evenmaUy be as many as one mutation per 10 bp in the genome. Formnately, most of these will probably occur in DNA that does not encode proteins or will not affect the function of encoded proteins and so are of no consequence. In addition, spontaneous and chemically induced damage to DNA must be repaired. 

Daunorubicin is an anthracycline that is sometimes referred to as an antitumor antibiotic. Daunorubicin inserts between base pairs of DNA to cause structural changes in DNA however, the primary mechanism of cytotoxicity is the inhibition of topoisomerase II. The pharmacokinetics are best described by a two-compartment model, with a terminal half-life of about 20 hours. The predominant route of elimination of daunorubicin and hydroxylated metabolites is hepatobiliary... 

Fig. 10 Two schematic representations of a polaron-like species in DNA. In the top drawing, the base pairs of DNA are represented by the horizontal lines the sugar diphosphate backbone is represented by the vertical lines. The polaronic distortion is enclosed in the box and extends over some number of base pairs. This is shown schematically by drawing the base-pair lines closer together. In the lower figure, a specific potential po-laron is identified, AAGGAA, and the radical cation is presented as being delocalized over this sequence. Movement of the polaron from one AAGGAA sequence to the next requires thermal activation...

Most of the DNA of animal cells is found in the nucleus, where DNA is the major constituent of the chromosomes. On the other hand, most of the RNA is located in the cytoplasm. Nuclear DNA exists as a thin, double helix only 2 nm wide. The double helix is folded and complexed with protein to form chromosomal strands approxim-ately 100 to 200 nm in diameter. Each chromosome contains a single DNA duplex. The human chromosomes vary in size the smallest contains approximately 4.6 X 10 base pairs of DNA, and the largest 2.4 X 10 base pairs. In contrast, the Escherichia coli chromosome has 4.5 x 106 base pairs. The DNA of die chromosomes is tightly packed and associated with both histone and nonhistone proteins. 

Protein-protein interactions between the histone subunits are undoubtedly important in promoting formation of a nucleosome in which 146 base pairs of DNA are coiled around the outside of the histone core. One molecule of histone HI binds to an exterior region of each nucleosome, but histone HI is not needed to determine nucleo-some structure. The distance between nucleosomes is approximately 200 base pairs consequently, in electron micrographs, nucleosomes resemble evenly spaced beads on a string of DNA. Neutron and x-ray diffraction data are also consistent with this structure. 

Perahia, D., and A. Pullman. 1978. The Molecular Electrostatic Potentials of the Complementary Base Pairs of DNA. Theor. Chim. Acta 48, 263. 

Ethidium bromide (1) is a widely used guest molecule (Scheme 1). The property that makes 1 a good probe for DNA binding is that its fluorescence quantum yield is very low in water and increases significantly when 1 intercalates between the base pairs of DNA.139... 

The nucleosome is composed of 200 base pairs of DNA and an octamer of the histones H2A, H2B, H3, and H4 as well as histone HI (Komberg, 1974, 1977). Nucleosomes can be obtained by mild digestion of chromatin with micrococcal nuclease (Noll, 1974a Axel, 1975), followed by fractionation on a sucrose gradient. Further digestion of the nucleosomes results in the formation of nucleosome core particles composed of 145 base pairs of DNA and an octamer of the histones H2A, H2B, H3, and H4 (Rill and Van Holde, 1973 Sollner-Webb and Felsenfeld, 1975 Axel, 1975 Bakayev et al., 1975 Whitlock and Simpson, 1976 Noll and Komberg, 1977). The DNA piece thus excised is called linker DNA which serves as a link... 

As to the stoichiometry of the H3-H4-DNA particle, two complexes were identified an H3-H4 tetramer and an H3-H4 octamer, each associated with about 140 base pairs of DNA. The complexing of 140 base pairs of DNA with H3 and H4 resulted in the formation of nucleosome-like particles, as observed by the EM, and reported to have an s20base pairs (Bina-Stein and Simpson, 1977 Bina-Stein, 1978). These results differ from those of Simon et al. (1978) who report that at least two complexes of H3 H4-DNA can be obtained upon reconstitution of H3, H4, and 150 bp DNA. In this experiment both an octamer and a tetramer of H3-H4 were found bound to 150 base pairs of DNA, having sM,w equal to 10.4 and 7.5 for the octamer and tetramer, respectively. The stoichiometry of the complexes obtained is dependent on the histone-to-DNA ratio. At low ratios of histone to DNA the predominant species contains an H3-H4 tetramer per 150 base pairs of DNA. At a histone-to-DNA ratio of 1 1 the octamer prevails. The nuclease and protease digestion experiments (Camerini-Otero et al., 1976 Sollner-Webb et al., 1976) were performed at a histone-to-DNA ratio of 0.5, conditions which for 140-base-pair DNA would lead primarily to a tetrameric complex. Therefore, it seems that a tetramer of H3 H4 is sufficient for the generation of nuclease-resistant fragments similar to those of complete nucleosomes. Upon addition of H2A and H2B to the tetrameric complex, nucleosomes are formed. Addition of H3-H4 to the tetrameric complex resulted in an octameric complex which is similar in compaction to nucleosomes. H3-H4 tetramers and octamers were similarly found complexed with about 140 base pairs of DNA upon reconstitution of H3-H4 with SV40 DNA. Both complexes were reported to be able to fold 140 base pairs of DNA (Thomas and Oudet, 1979). 

In experiments performed with chromatin or core particles depleted of histones except for H3 and H4 (Stockley and Thomas, 1979), two complexes were obtained, one containing an octamer and one a tetramer of H3 and H4 per 140 base pairs of DNA. The physical properties of the two core complexes were similar to those observed by... 

Simon RH, Eelsenfeld G (1979) A new procedure for purifying histone pairs H2A + H2B and H3 + H4 from chromatin using hydroxylapatite. Nucleic Acids Res 6 689-696 Simpson RT (1978) Structure of the chromatosome, a chromatin particle containing 160 base pairs of DNA and all the histones. Biochemistry 17 5524-5531 Simpson RT, Stafford DW (1983) Structural features of a phased nucleosome core particle. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 80 51-55... 

Bao Y, Konesky K, Park YJ, Rosu S, Dyer PN, Rangasamy D, Tremethick DJ, Laybourn PJ, Luger K (2004) Nucleosomes containing the histone variant H2A.Bbd organize only 118 base pairs of DNA. Embo J 23 3314-3324... 

The genetic information of eukaryotic cells is propagated in the form of chromosomal DNA. Besides the nucleic acid component, chromosomes contain architectural proteins as stoichiometric components, which are involved in the protective compaction of the fragile DNA double strands. Together, the DNA and proteins form a nucleoprotein structure called chromatin. The fundamental repeating unit of chromatin is the nucleosome core particle. It consists of about 147 base pairs of DNA wrapped around a histone octamer of a (H3/H4)2 tetramer and two (H2A-H2B) heterodimers. One molecule of the linker histone HI (or H5) binds the linker DNA region between two nucleosome core particles (Bates and Thomas 1981). 

Nucleosomes core particles containing H2A only have 118 base pairs of DNA incorporated compared to the canonical nucleosomes protecting about 147 base pairs from micrococcal nuclease (Bao et al. 2004). These nucleosomes are more flexible in structure and might facilitate passage of RNA polymerase II. However, the function of this histone variant in mammalian cells is not fully understood. As... 

Kilobase (Kb) A thousand base pairs of DNA or a thousand bases of RNA. This is a significant number because the average gene is 1,000 base pairs long. 

The recombination frequency provides a measure of the genetic distance between any pair of linked loci. Genetic distances are often expressed in centiMorgans (cM). One centiMorgan is equal to a 1% recombination frequency between two loci (for example, two loci that are 10 cM apart would have a recombination frequency of 10%). Physically, 1 cM is approximately equal to 1 million base pairs of DNA (1 Mb). This relationship is only approximate, however, because crossover frequencies vary somewhat throughout the genome (e.g., crossovers are less common near centromeres and more common near telomeres). 

The phen derivatives (319) and (320) contain intramolecular hydrogen bonds, and have been incorporated into the complexes [Ru(319)(bpy)2] " and [Ru(320)(bpy)2r. Spectroscopic methods and viscosity data have been used to investigate the interactions between these species and calf thymus DNA. It is proposed that binding of [Ru(319)(bpy)2] involves the intercalation of ligand (319) between the base pairs of DNA partial intercalation is proposed for [Ru(320)(bpy)2] . " The length of the spacer in the bridging ligand (321) in [(phen)2Ru(//-321)... 

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