DNA/RNA - Structure, Binding Modes and Function

Chair: Stephen. Neidle (UK), Co-chair: Bohdan Schneider (Czech Republic)

H. Rozenberg, J. Hizver, D. Rabinovich, F. Frolow, R.S. Hegde, Z. Shakked Recent X-ray studies on DNA deformation: Crystal Structures of Papillomavirus E2-DNA Targets A
W. Shepard, W.B.T. Cruse, R. Fourme, E. de la Fortelle, T. Prange A Zipper-Like Duplex in DNA: The Crystal Structure of D(GCGAAAGCT) A
Ch. Betzel, M. Perbandt, S. Lorenz, V.A. Erdmann Structural Studies on Ribosomal 5S RNA and Its Fragments A
A.K. Todd, A. Adams, J.H. Thorpe, W.A. Denny, C.J. Cardin Atomic Resolution Studies of the Binding of Antitumour Acrinides to DNA Duplexes A
G. Leonard, T. Brown, G. Conn The Crystal Structure of the RNA/DNA Hybrid r(GAAGAGAAGC).d(GCTTCTCTTC) A
B. Luisi, Z. Shakked, D. Lilley Some Interesting Properties of Duplex and Tetraplex DNA A

 

D2.jpg (110420 bytes)

The microsymposium had contributions from some of the currently most active areas in this rapidly-growing field, and was attended by a large and enthusiastic audience. Zippi Shakked (Weizmann Institute, Israel) spoke about her recent structural studies on DNA sequences involved in protein recognition, with particular emphasis on the conserved and flanking sequences in the binding site of the E2 papillomavirus protein. She showed how knowledge of the bending seen in various native DNAs is revealing information on their ability to be perturbed by protein binding. Bill Shepard (LURE, France) described the remarkable and unprecedented structure of the sequence d(GCGAAAGCT), which forms a duplex with the central run of adenines formed into a zipper-like stack of bases, flanked by GA mismatches. Christoph Betzel (University of Hamburg, Germany) discussed the latest progress on the structure of 5SRNA, which has been dissected into functional groups, such that some are of a size to be amenable to crystallographic analysis. Drug-DNA interactions have long been a major theme of nucleic acid structural studies. Christine Cardin (University of Reading, UK) showed how MAD techniques can be applied to drug-DNA complexes. She described a new class of major-groove complexes involving several intercalating agents in current clinical trial. Gordon Leonard (ESRF, France) returned to RNA topics with the description of only the second DNA-RNA hybrid crystal structure, of the sequence d(GCTTCTCTTC).r(GAAGAGAAGC). The novel alternation of the backbone in the RNA strand in this crystal structure is in apparent striking contrast to the model proposed from NMR studies, emphasising the need for more structural information on this biologically-important class of oligonucleotides. The microsymposium was concluded by a contribution from Ben Luisi (University of Cambridge, UK), who presented a data-base approach to the analysis of amine-amine close contacts in the major groove of oligonucleotide structures with high base-pair propeller twists.

 

S. Neidle, Chair