Guanine- and cytosine-rich nucleic acid sequences have the potential to form secondary structures such as G-quadruplexes and i-motifs, respectively. We show that stabilization of G-quadruplexes using small molecules destabilizes the i-motifs, and vice versa, indicating these gene regulatory controllers are interdependent in human cells. This has important implications as these structures are predominately considered as isolated structural targets for therapy, but their interdependency highlights the interplay of both structures as an important gene regulatory switch.

中文翻译：

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DNA G-四链体和 i-Motif 结构的形成在人类细胞中是相互依赖的

富含鸟嘌呤和胞嘧啶的核酸序列有可能分别形成二级结构，例如 G-四链体和 i-基序。我们表明使用小分子稳定 G-四链体会使 i-motif 不稳定，反之亦然，表明这些基因调控控制器在人类细胞中是相互依赖的。这具有重要意义，因为这些结构主要被认为是治疗的孤立结构靶点，但它们的相互依赖性突出了两种结构作为重要基因调控开关的相互作用。