Strand breaks in X-irradiated crystalline DNA: alternating CG oligomers.

Direct ionization of crystalline d(CGCGCGCG) and d(CGCGCGCGCG) oligomers produces 3'- and 5'-phosphate-terminated fragments as the main strand breakage products detectable by ion-exchange chromatography. The nature of the base has no effect on the probability of strand breakage at the given site. The yields of 3'-phosphates are systematically lower than the yields of the 5'-phosphates originating from the same cleavage site, pointing to the possible presence of unidentified products with sugar remnants attached to the 3'-end. These results show that direct ionization is efficient at producing single-strand breaks in DNA and its action is relatively indiscriminate with respect to base sequence.