Sugar conformations at hybrid duplex junctions in HIV-1 and Okazaki fragments.

We have carried out a solution study of the local conformation in a hybrid-chimeric duplex of the [sequence: see text] type (where r and D represent RNA and DNA). The object of this study was to investigate the sugar conformations at the internal junction in the hybrid-DNA octamer duplex (gccaCTGC). (GCAGTGGC)--where the lower-case letters represent RNA residues. Such duplexes represent good models for Okazaki fragments in which RNA primers are covalently extended into DNA strands during DNA replication of the lagging strand. Furthermore, this particular sequence occurs during HIV-1 retrovirus reverse transcription. The chimeric RNA-DNA strand and the complementary pure DNA strand chosen for this study result from the priming of (-)-strand DNA synthesis by tRNA(Lys) and subsequent (+)-strand DNA synthesis by reverse transcriptase prior to HIV-1 retrovirus integration. Despite the unusual specificity of the RNase H activity of reverse transcriptase, which cleaves the RNA c-a phosphodiester rather than the junction a-C linkage, we found no major structural differences among the RNA c-a phosphodiester rather than the junction a-C linkage, we found no major structural differences among the RNA sugar conformations--all RNA sugars were found in the normal C3'-endo A-form conformation. Instead, we find that the first DNA residue of the chimeric strand (5C) assumes a sugar conformation in the C4'-exo to O4'-endo range (P = 54-90 degrees). Furthermore, the hybrid segment of this duplex is more heteronomous than previously assumed for duplexes of the [sequence: see text] type.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)