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Looking for Waldo: a potential thermodynamic signature to DNA damage.

ABSTRACT: DNA in its simplest form is an ensemble of nucleic acids, water, and ions, and the conformation of DNA is dependent on the relative proportions of all three components. When DNA is covalently damaged by endogenous or exogenous reactive species, including those produced by some anticancer drugs, the ensemble undergoes localized changes that affect nucleic acid structure, thermodynamic stability, and the qualitative and quantative arrangement of associated cations and water molecules. Fortunately, the biological effects of low levels of DNA damage are successfully mitigated by a large number of proteins that efficiently recognize and repair DNA damage in the midst of a vast excess of canonical DNA. In this Account, we explore the impact of DNA modifications on the high resolution and dynamic structure of DNA, DNA stability, and the uptake of ions and water and explore how these changes may be sensed by proteins whose function is to initially locate DNA lesions. We discuss modifications on the nucleobases that are located in the major and minor grooves of DNA and include lesions that are observed in vivo, including oxidized bases, as well as some synthetic nucleobases that allow us to probe how the location and nature of different substituents affect the thermodynamics and structure of the DNA ensemble. It is demonstrated that disruption of a cation binding site in the major groove by modification of the N7-position on the purines, which is the major site for DNA alkylation, is enthalpically destabilizing. Accordingly, tethering a cationic charge in the major groove is enthalpically stabilizing. The combined structural and thermodynamic studies provide a detailed picture of how different DNA lesions affect the dynamics of DNA and how modified bases interact with their environment. Our work supports the hypothesis that there is a "thermodynamic signature" to DNA lesions that can be exploited in the initial search that requires differentiation between canonical DNA and DNA with a lesion. The differentiation between a lesion and a cognate lesion that is a substrate for a particular enzyme involves another layer of thermodynamic and kinetic factors.

SUBMITTER: Gold B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3993888 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Looking for Waldo: a potential thermodynamic signature to DNA damage.

Gold Barry B Stone Michael P MP Marky Luis A LA

Accounts of chemical research 20140404 4

DNA in its simplest form is an ensemble of nucleic acids, water, and ions, and the conformation of DNA is dependent on the relative proportions of all three components. When DNA is covalently damaged by endogenous or exogenous reactive species, including those produced by some anticancer drugs, the ensemble undergoes localized changes that affect nucleic acid structure, thermodynamic stability, and the qualitative and quantative arrangement of associated cations and water molecules. Fortunately, ...[more]

PMID: 24702131

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Project description:Upon exposure to agents that damage DNA, Saccharomyces cerevisiae undergo widespread reprogramming of gene expression. Such a vast response may be due not only to damage to DNA but also damage to proteins, RNA, and lipids. Here the transcriptional response of S. cerevisiae specifically induced by DNA damage was discerned by exposing S. cerevisiae to a panel of three "radiomimetic" enediyne antibiotics (calicheamicin gamma1I, esperamicin A1 and neocarzinostatin) that bind specifically to DNA and generate varying proportions of single- and double-strand DNA breaks. The genome-wide responses were compared to those induced by the non-selective oxidant gamma-radiation.Given well-controlled exposures that resulted in similar and minimal cell death (~20-25%) across all conditions, the extent of gene expression modulation was markedly different depending on treatment with the enediynes or gamma-radiation. Exposure to gamma-radiation resulted in more extensive transcriptional changes classified both by the number of genes modulated and the magnitude of change. Common biological responses were identified between the enediynes and gamma-radiation, with the induction of DNA repair and stress response genes, and the repression of ribosomal biogenesis genes. Despite these common responses, a fraction of the response induced by gamma radiation was repressed by the enediynes and vise versa, suggesting that the enediyne response is not entirely "radiomimetic." Regression analysis identified 55 transcripts with gene expression induction associated both with double- or single-strand break formation. The S. cerevisiae "DNA damage signature" genes as defined by Gasch et al. 1 were enriched among regulated transcripts associated with single-strand breaks, while genes involved in cell cycle regulation were associated with double-strand breaks.Dissection of the transcriptional response in yeast that is specifically signaled by DNA strand breaks has identified that single-strand breaks provide the signal for activation of transcripts encoding proteins involved in the DNA damage signature in S. cerevisiae, and double-strand breaks signal changes in cell cycle regulation genes.

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Looking for Waldo: a potential thermodynamic signature to DNA damage.

Publications

Looking for Waldo: a potential thermodynamic signature to DNA damage.

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