1. Section C - Properties of Nucleic Acids

2. Contents C1 Nucleic Acid Structure
Bases, Nucleosides, Nucleotides, Phosphodiester bonds, DNA/RNA sequence, DNA double helix, A, B and Z helices, RNA secondary structure, Modified nucleic acids
C2 Chemical and Physical Properties of Nucleic Acids
Stability of Nucleic Acids, Effect of acid, Effect of alkali, Chemical denaturation, Viscosity, Buoyant density
C3 Spectroscopic Properties of Nucleic Acids
UV absorption, Hypochromicity, Quantization of nucleic acids, Purity of DNA, Thermal denaturation, Renaturation
C4 DNA supercoiling
Closed-circular, Supercoiling, Topoisomer, Twist and writhe, Intercalators, Energy of supercoiling, Topoisomerases

3. C1 Nucleic Acid Structure — Bases
Bicyclic Purine
Monocyclic Pyrimidine

4. C1 Nucleic Acid Structure — Nucleosides
Glycosidic (glycoside, glycosylic) bond (糖苷键)

5. C1 Nucleic Acid Structure — Nucleotides
A nucleotide is a nucleoside with one or more phosphate groups bound covalently to the 3’-, 5’, or ( in ribonucleotides only) the 2’-position. In the case of 5’-position, up to three phosphates may be attached.

6. BASES NUCLEOSIDES NUCLEOTIDES Adenine (A) Adenosine
Adenosine 5’-triphosphate (ATP)
Deoxyadenosine
Deoxyadenosine 5’-triphosphate (dATP)
Guanine (G)
Guanosine
Guanosine 5’-triphosphate (GTP)
Deoxyguanosine
Deoxy-guanosine 5’-triphosphate (dGTP)
Cytosine (C)
Cytidine
Cytidine 5’-triphosphate (CTP)
Deoxycytidine
Deoxy-cytidine 5’-triphosphate (dCTP)
Uracil (U)
Uridine
Uridine 5’-triphosphate (UTP)
Thymine (T)
Thymidine/
Deoxythymidie
Thymidine/deoxythymidie
5’-triphosphate (dTTP)

7. C1 Nucleic Acid Structure — Phosphodiester bonds

8. C1 Nucleic Acid Structure — DNA/RNA sequence

9. C1 Nucleic Acid Structure — DNA double helix
Watson and Crick , 1953
The genetic material of all organisms except for some viruses
The foundation of the molecular biology
Watson
Crick

10. Essential for replicating DNA and transcribing RNA
Two separate strands Antiparellel (5’3’ direction)
Complementary (sequence)
Base pairing: hydrogen bonding that holds two strands together 3’ 5’
Sugar-phosphate backbones (negatively charged): outside
Planner bases (stack one above the other): inside 3’ 5’

11. Helical turn:
10 base pairs/turn
34 Ao/turn

12. Base pairing

13. C1 Nucleic Acid Structure — A, B and Z helices

14. C1 Nucleic Acid Structure — RNA secondary structure
Single stranded nucleic acid
Secondary structure are formed some time
Globular tertiary structure are important for many functional RNAs, such as tRNA, rRNA and ribozyme RNA
Forces for secondary and tertiary structure: intramolecular hydrogen bonding and base stacking.

15. Conformational (构象) variability of RNA is important for the much more diverse roles of RNA in the cell, when compared to DNA.
Structure and Function correspondence of protein and nucleic acids
Protein
Nucleic Acids
Fibrous protein
Globular protein
Helical DNA
Globular RNA
Structural proteins
Enzymes,
antibodies,
receptors etc
Genetic information maintenance
Ribozymes
Transfer RNA (tRNA)
Signal recognition etc.

16. COMMON SECONDARY STRUCTURE MOTIFS

17. C1 Nucleic Acid Structure — Modified nucleic acids
1. Methylation:
(N-6position of adenine ,4-amino group and 5-position of cytosine)
Restriction modification
2. Base mismatch:
Modifications correspond to numbers of specific roles. We will discuss them in some related topics. For example, methylation of A and C to can avoid restriction digestion of endogenous DNA sequence.

18. Deoxyribonucleic acids Nucleic acid analogues
Types of nucleic acids
Constituents
Nucleobases • Nucleosides • Nucleotides • Deoxynucleotides
Ribonucleic acids
RNA • mRNA (pre-mRNA/hnRNA) • tRNA • rRNA • aRNA • gRNA • miRNA • ncRNA • piRNA • shRNA • siRNA • snRNA • snoRNA • stRNA • ta-siRNA • tmRNA
Deoxyribonucleic acids
DNA • cDNA • cpDNA • gDNA • msDNA • mtDNA
Nucleic acid analogues
GNA • LNA • PNA • TNA • morpholino
Cloning vectors
phagemid • plasmid • lambda phage • cosmid • P1 phage • fosmid • BAC • YAC • HAC

19. 2. Stacking interaction/hydrophobic interaction
C2 Chemical and Physical Properties of Nucleic Acids — Stability of Nucleic Acids
Hydrogen bonding
Does not normally contribute the stability of nucleic acids or protein
Contributes to specific structures of these macromolecules. For example, a-helix, b-sheet, DNA double helix, RNA secondary structure
2. Stacking interaction/hydrophobic interaction
Between aromatic base pairs/bases contribute to the stability of nucleic acids.
It is energetically favorable for the hydrophobic bases to exclude waters and stack on top of each other
This stacking is maximized in double-stranded DNA

20. C2 Chemical and Physical Properties of Nucleic Acids — Effect of acid
Strong acid + high temperature:
completely hydrolyzed to bases, riboses/deoxyrobose, and phosphate
pH 3-4 :
apurinic nucleic acids [glycosylic bonds attaching purine (A and G) bases to the ribose ring are broken ], can be generated by formic acid

21. RNA hydrolyzes at higher pH because of 2’-OH groups in RNA
C2 Chemical and Physical Properties of Nucleic Acids — Effect of alkali
RNA hydrolyzes at higher pH because of 2’-OH groups in RNA

22. High pH (> 7-8) has subtle (small) effects on DNA structure
High pH changes the tautomeric (互变异构)state of the bases
keto form
enolate form
Base pairing is not stable anymore because of the change of tautomeric states of the bases, resulting in DNA denaturation

23. Strong acid + high temperature:
C2 Chemical and Physical Properties of Nucleic Acids — Chemical denaturation
Strong acid + high temperature:
completely hydrolyzed to bases, riboses/deoxyrobose, and phosphate
Disrupting the hydrogen bonding of the bulk water solution
Hydrophobic effect (aromatic bases) is reduced
Denaturation of strands in double helical structure

24. C2 Chemical and Physical Properties of Nucleic Acids — Viscosity
Buoyant density
Physical properties
Reasons for the DNA high viscosity
High axial ratio
Relatively stiff
Applications:
Long DNA molecules can easily be shortened by shearing force. Remember to avoid shearing problem when isolating very large DNA molecule.

25. C2 Chemical and Physical Properties of Nucleic Acids — Buoyant density
1.7 g cm-3, a similar density to 8M CsCl
Purifications of DNA: equilibrium density gradient centrifugation
Protein floats
RNA pellets at the bottom

26. C3 Spectroscopic Properties of Nucleic Acids — UV absorption
Nucleic acids absorb UV light due to the aromatic bases
The wavelength of maximum absorption by both DNA and RNA is 260 nm
Applications: detection, quantitation, assessment of purity (A260/A280)
Quantitation of nucleic acids:
Extinction coefficients: 1 mg/ml dsDNA has an A260 of 20；ssDNA and RNA, 25

27. C3 Spectroscopic Properties of Nucleic Acids — Hypochromicity
Hypochromicity: caused by the fixing of the bases in a hydrophobic environment by stacking, which makes these bases less accessible to UV absorption. dsDNA, ssDNA/RNA, nucleotide

28. C3 Spectroscopic Properties of Nucleic Acids — Quantitation of nucleic acids
Extinction coefficients: 1 mg/ml dsDNA has an A260 of 20
ssDNA and RNA, 25
The values for ssDNA and RNA are approximate
The values are the sum of absorbance contributed by the different bases (e.g. purines > pyrimidines)
The absorbance values also depend on the amount of secondary structures due to hypochromicity

29. C3 Spectroscopic Properties of Nucleic Acids — Purity of DNA
A260/A dsDNA--1.8
pure RNA protein--0.5

30. C3 Spectroscopic Properties of Nucleic Acids — Thermal denaturation
Thermal denaturation/melting:
heating leads to the destruction of double-stranded hydrogen-bonded regions of DNA and RNA.

31. C3 Spectroscopic Properties of Nucleic Acids — Renaturation
Rapid cooling:
only allow the formation of local base paring. Absorbance is slightly decreased.
Slow cooling:
whole complementation of dsDNA. Absorbance decreases greatly and cooperatively.
Annealing: base paring of short regions of complementarity within or between DNA strands. (example: annealing step in PCR reaction)
Hybridization: renaturation of complementary sequences between different nucleic acid molecules.
(examples: Northern or Southern hybridization)

32. C4 DNA supercoiling — Closed-circular
cccDNA: Covalently closed circular
Almost all DNA molecules in cells can be considered as circular, and are on average negatively supercoiled.

33. C4 DNA supercoiling — Supercoiling
Most natural DNA is negatively supercoiled, that is the DNA is deformed in the direction of unwinding of double helix.
Lk: linking number
Lk。: the linking number for a relaxed closed

34. C4 DNA supercoiling — Topoisomer
A circular dsDNA molecule with a specific linking number which may not be changed without first breaking one or both strands.

35. C4 DNA supercoiling — Twist and writhe
Supercoiling is partitioned geometrically into a change in twist, the local winding up or unwinding of the double helix, and a change in writhe, the coiling of the helix axis up itself.
Twist and writhe are interconvertible according to the equation:
ΔLK=ΔTω+ΔWr

36. C4 DNA supercoiling — Intercalators
Ethidium bromide (intercalator):
locally unwinding of bound DNA, resulting in a reduction in twist and increase in writhe.

37. C4 DNA supercoiling — Energy of supercoiling
Negatively supercoiled DNA has a high torsional energy, which facilitates the untwisting of DNA helix and can drive processes which require the DNA to be unwound.
Such as transcription initiation or replication.

38. C4 DNA supercoiling — Topoisomerases
Topoisomerases exist in cell to regulate the level of supercoiling of DNA molecules.
Type I topoisomerase: breaks one strand and change the linking number in steps of ±1.
TypeII topoisomerase: breaks both strands and change the linking number in steps of ±2.
Gyrase: introduce the negative supercoiling (resolving the positive one and using the energy from ATP hydrolysis.

40. Multiple choice questions
1．The sequence 5'-AGTCTGACT-3' in DNA is equivalent to which sequence in RNA?
A 5'-AGUCUGUGACU -3'
B 5' -UGTCTGUTC -3'
C 5' -UCAGUCUGA-3'
D 5'- AGUCAGACU-3'

41. 2. Which of the following correctly describes A-DNA?
A a right-handed antiparallel double helix with 10 bp/turn and bases lying perpendicular to the helix axis.
B a left-handed antiparallel double-helix with 12 bp/turn formed from alternating pyrimidine-purine sequences.
C a right-handed antiparallel double helix with 11 bp/turn and bases tilted with respect to the helix axis.
D a globular structure formed by short intramolecular helices formed in a single-strand nucleic acid.
3. Denaturation of double stranded DNA involves
A preakage into short double-stranded fragments.
B separation into single strands.
C hydrolysis of the DNA backbone.
D cleavage of the bases from the sugar-phosphate backbone.

42. 4. Which has the highest absorption per unit mass at a wavelength of 260 nm?
A double-stranded DNA.
B mononucleotides.
C RNA.
D protein.
5. Type I DNA topoisomeraes
A change linking number by士2
B require ATP.
C break one strand of a DNA double helix.
D are the target of antibacterial drugs.

43. THANK YOU !