Evidence for intramolecularly folded i-DNA structures in biologically relevant CCC-repeat sequences.

The structural behaviour of repetitive cytosine DNA is examined in the oligodeoxynucleotide sequences of (CCCTAA)3CCCT (HTC4), GC(TCCC)3TCCT(TCCC)3 (KRC6) and the methylated (CCCT)3TCCT(CCCT)3C (KRM6) by circular dichroism (CD), gel electrophoresis (PAGE), and ultra violet (UV) absorbance studies. All the three sequences exhibit a pH-induced cooperative structural transition as monitored by CD. An intense positive CD band around 285 nm develops on lowering the pH from 8 to slightly acidic condition, indicative of the formation of base pairs between protonated cytosines. The oligomers are found to melt in a fully reversible and cooperative fashion, with a melting temperature (Tm) of around 50 degrees C at pH 5.5. The melting temperatures are independent from DNA concentration, indicative of an intramolecular process involved in the structural formation. PAGE experiments performed with 32P-labeled samples as well as with normal staining procedures show a predominantly single band migration for all the three oligomers suggestive of a unimolecular structure. From pH titrations the number of protons required for generating the structures formed by HTC4, KRC6 and KRM6 results to be around six. These findings strongly suggest that all the three sequences adopt an intramolecular i-motif structure. The demonstration of i-motif structure for KRC6, a critical functional stretch of the c-ki-ras promoter proto-oncogene, besides the human telomeric sequence HTC4, may be suggestive of larger significance in the functioning of DNA.