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PMID: 3714469 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Diethyl pyrocarbonate: a chemical probe for DNA cruciforms.

Nucleic acids research ·Vol. 14 ·No. 10 ·1986-05-27 ·Pages 3981-93

Scholten PM, Nordheim A

Abstract

Two palindromic DNA sequences were analyzed with respect to their chemical reactivities with diethyl pyrocarbonate. In negatively supercoiled plasmid templates enhanced N7 carbethoxylation was found with individual purines located in presumptive single-stranded loops of DNA cruciform structures. No enhanced reactivity at these positions was observed in linear, relaxed or low superhelical density plasmids. Hyperreactivity was found over a narrow region only, indicating that stable cruciforms contain loops of minimal size. No enhanced chemical reactivity was found with the four-way junction at the base of cruciforms. Diethyl pyrocarbonate has proved a sensitive structural probe for the analysis, with single nucleotide resolution, of DNA cruciform structures.

MeSH Terms
Base Sequence DNA/analysis Diethyl Pyrocarbonate Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel Formates Nucleic Acid Conformation Plasmids Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid
Chemicals
Formates DNA Diethyl Pyrocarbonate
Authors & Affiliations
2 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Scholten P M
Nordheim A
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24 references, click to expand
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Article Info
Journal
Nucleic acids research
Abbr.
Nucleic Acids Res
ISSN
0305-1048
DOI
10.1093/nar/14.10.3981
Published
1986-05-27
Pages
3981-93
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
0411011
PMCID
PMC339840
Subset
IM
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1093/nar/14.10.3981 PMC Full Text View journal details
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