The catalytic properties of DNA G-quadruplexes rely on their structural integrity

Jielin Chen (1) , Mingpan Cheng (1) , Jiawei Wang (1) , Dehui Qiu (1) , David Monchaud (2) , Jean‐louis Mergny (1, 3) , Huangxian Ju (1) , Jun Zhou (1)

1 NJU - Nanjing University
2 ICMUB - Institut de Chimie Moléculaire de l'Université de Bourgogne [Dijon]
3 LOB - Laboratoire d'Optique et Biosciences

The influence of the G-quartet structural integrity on the catalytic activity of the G-quadruplex (G4) was investigated by comparing the G4-DNAzyme performances of a series of G4s with a G-vacancy site and a G-triplex (G-tri). The results presented herein not only confirm that the structural integrity of the 3’-end G-quartet is necessary for G4s to be catalytically competent but also show how to remediate G-vacancy-mediated catalytic activity losses via the addition of guanine surrogates in an approach referred to as G-vacancy complementation strategy that is applicable to parallel G4s only. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that the terminal G-quartet could act as a proximal coordinating group and cooperate with the flanking nucleotide to activate the hemin cofactor.

Mots clés: G-quadruplex; G-quadruplex DNAzyme; G-vacancy; G-quartet integrity; Guanine surrogate; G-quadruplex

Domaines: Catalyse; Biochimie [q-bio.BM]

Jielin Chen, Mingpan Cheng, Jiawei Wang, Dehui Qiu, David Monchaud, et al.. The catalytic properties of DNA G-quadruplexes rely on their structural integrity. Chinese Journal of Catalysis, 2021, 42 (7), pp.1102-1107. ⟨10.1016/S1872-2067(20)63744-5⟩. ⟨hal-03145621⟩