Fragile X DNA triplet repeats, (GCC)n, form hairpins with single hydrogen-bonded cytosine.cytosine mispairs at the CpG sites: isotope-edited nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy on (GCC)n with selective 15N4-labeled cytosine bases.

Here, we provide a direct proof that the formation of hairpins by (GCC)n at the 5'-UTR of the FMR-1 gene offers a mechanism for CpG hypermethylation associated with the fragile X syndrome. For this, we have performed hetero-nuclear (15N-1H) magnetic resonance spectroscopy to probe the structure of the CpG sites in the (GCC)n hairpins that are 15N-labeled at the amino (N4) groups of specific cytosine bases. Analyses of chemical shift, pH-induced chemical exchange, and NOE pattern of the (15N-labeled) amino protons of cytosine bases reveal that the cytosine bases at the CpG sites are intrahelical and well-stacked with the neighboring G.C base-pairs in the stem of these hairpins and probably form single hydrogen-bonded C.C mispairs. Measurements of pH-dependent 1H line-width also demonstrate that the C.C mispairs are more susceptible to open-closure than the G.C base-pairs. Thus, the Cs at the CpG sites of the (GCC)n hairpin are "flipped out" more easily to the activated state than those in the corresponding Watson-Crick duplex, (GCC)n. (GGC)n and this makes the hairpin a better target for methylation by the human methyltransferase, the enzyme that methylates the Cs at the CpG sites. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.