Šket Primož, Pohleven Jure, Kovanda Anja, Štalekar Maja, Župunski Vera, Zalar Matja, Plavec Janez, Rogelj Boris
Slovenian NMR Centre, National Institute of Chemistry, Ljubljana, Slovenia; EN-FIST Center of Excellence, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Department of Biotechnology, Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Neurobiol Aging. 2015 Feb;36(2):1091-6. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2014.09.012. Epub 2014 Sep 28.
The G4C2 hexanucleotide repeat expansion, located in the first intron of the C9ORF72 gene, represents a major genetic hallmark of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Several hypotheses have been proposed on how the transcribed repeat RNA leads to the development of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal lobar degeneration. However, despite their importance, factors affecting the transcription of expanded-repeat RNA are not well known. As transcription is dependent on the DNA containing the expanded repeats, it is crucial to understand its structure. G-quadruplexes are known to affect expression on the level of DNA, therefore whether they form on the expanded-repeat DNA constitutes an important biological question. Using nuclear magnetic resonance and circular dichroism spectroscopy we show that DNA G4C2 with varying number of repeats d(G4C2)n form planar guanine quartets characteristic of G-quadruplexes. Additionally, we show DNA G-quadruplexes can form inter- and intra-molecularly in either parallel or anti-parallel orientation, based on d(G4C2) sequence length. This potential structural heterogeneity of longer disease-relevant repeats should therefore be taken into account when studying their role in disease pathogenesis.
位于C9ORF72基因第一内含子中的G4C2六核苷酸重复序列扩增是肌萎缩侧索硬化症和额颞叶痴呆的主要遗传标志。关于转录后的重复RNA如何导致肌萎缩侧索硬化症和额颞叶痴呆的发展,已经提出了几种假说。然而,尽管它们很重要,但影响扩增重复RNA转录的因素却鲜为人知。由于转录依赖于含有扩增重复序列的DNA,因此了解其结构至关重要。已知G-四链体在DNA水平上影响表达,因此它们是否在扩增重复DNA上形成是一个重要的生物学问题。我们使用核磁共振和圆二色光谱表明,具有不同重复次数的DNA G4C2(d(G4C2)n)形成了G-四链体特有的平面鸟嘌呤四重体。此外,我们还表明,基于d(G4C2)序列长度,DNA G-四链体可以以平行或反平行方向在分子间和分子内形成。因此,在研究较长的与疾病相关的重复序列在疾病发病机制中的作用时,应考虑到这种潜在的结构异质性。