Structure-function correlations of the insulin-linked polymorphic region.

The insulin minisatellite of the insulin-linked polymorphic region (ILPR), a 14 base-pairs long tandem repeat of: 5'-ACAGGGGTGTGGGG-3' 3'-TGTCCCCACACCCC-5', is located 363 base-pairs upstream of the human insulin gene. A locus for insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) has been mapped to the ILPR. It has been shown that the ILPR is polymorphic in length and this length polymorphism is also related to the transcriptional activity of the insulin gene and the susceptibility to IDDM. Here, we attempt to decipher the role of the ILPR structure in length polymorphism and transcriptional regulation. We show by gel electrophoresis, circular dichroism (CD) and one and two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1D/2D NMR) that the G-rich strand of the ILPR adopts an intramolecularly folded hairpin G-quartet structure. A detailed analysis of 1D/2D NMR data of d(G4TGTG4) and d(G4TGTG4ACAG4TGTG4) enables us to define the nature of chainfolding, the stacking interaction of the G-tetrads in the stem, and the interactions of the bases in the loops. d(G4TGTG4ACAG4TGTG4) happens to be the smallest unit of the G-rich strand that can form the intramolecular hairpin G-quartet structure. For long ILPR sequences, several such hairpin G-quartet structures can be linked in space. Indeed, by an in vitro replication assay, we show the presence of such multiple hairpin G-quartet structures for the G-rich strand of the ILPR of repeat length 6. This observation suggests that the formation of multiple hairpin G-quartets may explain slippage during replication and the observed length polymorphism. From our high resolution structure, we are able to identify a set of interactions that are critical for the structure and stability of the hairpin G-quartet. Single or double mutations in the ILPR that destabilize these interactions also lower the transcriptional activity of the insulin gene. Therefore, the hairpin G-quartet structure of the ILPR has a direct correlation with the transcriptional activity of the human insulin gene.