Eckdahl T T, Anderson J N
Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907.
Nucleic Acids Res. 1987 Oct 26;15(20):8531-45. doi: 10.1093/nar/15.20.8531.
Sequence-dependent DNA bending of synthetic and natural molecules was studied by computer analysis. Modelling of synthetic oligonucleotides and of 107 kb of natural sequences gave results which closely resembled published electrophoretic data, demonstrating the powerful predictive capacity of the procedure. The analysis was extended to the study of DNA structures involved in chromosome maintenance. Centromeric DNAs from yeast were found to have sequences in their functional elements which cause them to be unusually straight. Autonomous replicating sequences were found to have two structural domains, one consisting of unusually straight sequences surrounding the consensus and the other of bending elements in flanking DNA. In addition to a structural homology, centromeric and autonomous replicating sequences share common sequence elements. These observations show that computer modelling of natural sequences is a viable approach to the study of the biological implications of alternative DNA structures.
通过计算机分析研究了合成分子和天然分子的序列依赖性DNA弯曲。对合成寡核苷酸和107 kb天然序列的建模结果与已发表的电泳数据非常相似,证明了该方法强大的预测能力。该分析扩展到对参与染色体维持的DNA结构的研究。发现来自酵母的着丝粒DNA在其功能元件中具有使其异常笔直的序列。发现自主复制序列有两个结构域,一个由围绕共有序列的异常笔直序列组成,另一个由侧翼DNA中的弯曲元件组成。除了结构同源性外,着丝粒序列和自主复制序列还共享共同的序列元件。这些观察结果表明,对天然序列进行计算机建模是研究替代DNA结构生物学意义的一种可行方法。