Poster abstracts
Poster number 122 submitted by Sarah Rundell
Structure of bPNA triplex hybrid determined by x-ray crystallography
Sarah Rundell (Chemistry and Biochemistry, The Ohio State University), Prof. Dennis Bong (Chemistry and Biochemistry, The Ohio State University)
Abstract:
Our lab has identified oligo T/U recognition with melamine in triplex structures, however, we still lack detailed structural information. Our goal is to crystallize DNA and RNA triplex hybrids with small molecules and peptides and elucidate the structures via X-ray analysis. The structures will be used in rational design of DNA/RNA binding molecules which may extend into nucleotide-based therapeutics. Following established literature methods, we designed DNA/RNA templates with oligo T/U stretches as binding sites and incorporated known crystal packing sequences. Large scale synthesis of the peptide (bPNA) and the small molecule (t4M) was accomplished. The binding between the nucleic acids and melamine based molecules was confirmed by electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) and the annealed molecules were screened for crystals using sitting drop vapor diffusion. Potential crystals were found in both DNA and RNA screens which were confirmed by denaturing PAGE gels against their original templates. We describe herein our efforts and progress to date in screening crystallization conditions for X-ray diffraction.
Keywords: Crystallization, Triplex hybrids, bPNA