6WK7

Crystal Structure Analysis of a poly(thymine) DNA duplex

Summary for 6WK7

• Entry DOI: 10.2210/pdb6wk7/pdb
• Descriptor: DNA (5'-D(*TP*TP*TP*TP*TP*T)-3'), 1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine (3 entities in total)
• Functional Keywords: melamine-mediated, poly(thymine) dna duplex, dna
• Biological source: synthetic construct
• Total number of polymer chains: 2
• Total formula weight: 4317.12

Authors

Li, Q.,Zhao, J.,Liu, L.,Mandal, S.,Rizzuto, F.J.,He, H.,Wei, S.,Jonchhe, S.,Sleiman, H.F.,Mao, H.,Mao, C. (deposition date: 2020-04-15, release date: 2020-07-22, Last modification date: 2023-10-18)

Primary citation

Li, Q.,Zhao, J.,Liu, L.,Jonchhe, S.,Rizzuto, F.J.,Mandal, S.,He, H.,Wei, S.,Sleiman, H.F.,Mao, H.,Mao, C.
A poly(thymine)-melamine duplex for the assembly of DNA nanomaterials.
Nat Mater, 19:1012-1018, 2020

PubMed Abstract: The diversity of DNA duplex structures is limited by a binary pair of hydrogen-bonded motifs. Here we show that poly(thymine) self-associates into antiparallel, right-handed duplexes in the presence of melamine, a small molecule that presents a triplicate set of the hydrogen-bonding face of adenine. X-ray crystallography shows that in the complex two poly(thymine) strands wrap around a helical column of melamine, which hydrogen bonds to thymine residues on two of its three faces. The mechanical strength of the thymine-melamine-thymine triplet surpasses that of adenine-thymine base pairs, which enables a sensitive detection of melamine at 3 pM. The poly(thymine)-melamine duplex is orthogonal to native DNA base pairing and can undergo strand displacement without the need for overhangs. Its incorporation into two-dimensional grids and hybrid DNA-small-molecule polymers highlights the poly(thymine)-melamine duplex as an additional tool for DNA nanotechnology.

PubMed: 32661383
DOI: 10.1038/s41563-020-0728-2

Experimental method

X-RAY DIFFRACTION (2.423 Å)