Conformational transitions in thymidine bulge-containing deoxytridecanucleotide duplexes. Role of flanking sequence and temperature in modulating the equilibrium between looped out and stacked thymidine bulge states.

Structural features at extra thymidine bulge sites in DNA duplexes have been elucidated from a two-dimensional NMR analysis of through-bond and through-space connectivities in the otherwise self-complementary d(C-C-G-T-G-A-A-T-T-C-C-G-G) (GTG 13-mer) and d(C-C-G-G-A-A-T-T-C-T-C-G-G) (CTC 13-mer) duplexes in aqueous solution. These studies establish that the extra thymidine flanked by guanosines in the GTG 13-mer duplex is in a conformational equilibrium between looped out and stacked states. The looped-out state is favored at low temperature (0 degrees C), whereas the equilibrium shifts in favor of the stacked state at elevated temperatures (35 degrees C) prior to the onset of the duplex-strand transition. By contrast, the extra thymidine flanked by cytidines in the CTC 13-mer duplex is looped out independent of temperature in the duplex state. Our results demonstrate that temperature and flanking sequence modulate the equilibrium between looped-out and stacked conformations of single base thymidine bulges in DNA oligomer duplexes.