Issue 3, 2010
From the journal:

Molecular BioSystems

Formation of i-motif structure at neutral and slightly alkaline pH†

Jun Zhou,ab   Chunying Wei,c   Guoqing Jia,ab   Xiuli Wang,ab   Zhaochi Fenga  and  Can Li*a  

* Corresponding authors

a State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China
E-mail: canli@dicp.ac.cn
Web: http://www.canli.dicp.ac.cn
Fax: +86-411-84694447
Tel: +86-411-84379070

b Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China

c Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Molecular Engineering of Ministry of Education, Institute of Molecular Science, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China

Abstract

It is well known that oligonucleotides containing tracts cytosines can form i-motif structures under acidic conditions (pH < 7). However, whether i-motif can be formed under normal physiological cellular conditions (pH 7.0–7.5) is yet no conclusive proof. In the present work, using circular dichroism (CD), UV absorption spectroscopies and native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), we provided the compelling evidence for the formation of i-motif structures by four cytosine clusters, [C3TA2]3C3 (HT), [C4G]3C4TA (RET), C2T3C2T4C2T3C2 (CTC) and GC2GC3A4C6G (Rb), at neutral and slightly alkaline pH at 4 °C. Furthermore, for HT, we also supplied the evidence for the formation of i-motif structure by fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and investigated its folding kinetics. The formation time constants obtained by CD and fluorescence experiments are 214 and 493 s, respectively, indicating that HT can slowly form i-motif structure at pH 7.0 and 4 °C. This work implies that i-motif structures may possible form in vivo.

Graphical abstract: Formation of i-motif structure at neutral and slightly alkaline pH

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/B919600E
Article type
Paper
Submitted
21 Sep 2009
Accepted
04 Nov 2009
First published
14 Dec 2009

Mol. BioSyst., 2010,6, 580-586

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Formation of i-motif structure at neutral and slightly alkaline pH

J. Zhou, C. Wei, G. Jia, X. Wang, Z. Feng and C. Li, Mol. BioSyst., 2010, 6, 580 DOI: 10.1039/B919600E

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