Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 3, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2021 Jul 5;60(28):15390-15398. doi: 10.1002/anie.202016757. Epub 2021 May 26.
Quadruplexes are non-canonical nucleic acid structures essential for many cellular processes. Hybrid quadruplex-duplex oligonucleotide assemblies comprised of multiple domains are challenging to study with conventional biophysical methods due to their structural complexity. Here, we introduce a novel method based on native mass spectrometry (MS) coupled with a custom-built temperature-controlled nanoelectrospray ionization (TCnESI) source designed to investigate interactions between proximal DNA domains. Thermal denaturation experiments were aimed to study unfolding of multi-stranded oligonucleotide constructs derived from biologically relevant structures and to identify unfolding intermediates. Using the TCnESI MS, we observed changes in T and thermodynamic characteristics of proximal DNA domains depending on the number of domains, their position, and order in a single experiment.
四链体是非经典核酸结构,对于许多细胞过程至关重要。由于其结构复杂性,使用传统的生物物理方法很难研究由多个结构域组成的杂交四链体-双链体寡核苷酸组装体。在这里,我们介绍了一种基于天然质谱(MS)的新方法,该方法与定制的温度控制纳喷雾电离(TCnESI)源相结合,旨在研究近端 DNA 结构域之间的相互作用。热变性实验旨在研究源自生物相关结构的多链寡核苷酸结构的展开,并鉴定展开中间体。使用 TCnESI MS,我们观察到取决于域的数量、它们的位置和在单个实验中的顺序的近端 DNA 域的 T 和热力学特性的变化。