Adenine affects the structure and stability of telomeric sequences

Adenine occurs in the strand containing repeated G clusters in the telomeric DNA of a variety of organisms, including that of humans. The role of adenine has been investigated by constructing two sets of oligonucleotides each with one, two, or four copies of the telomeric sequence dTTTAGGG together with a control sequence in which T replaces the A residue, dTTTTGGG. Comparison of the stability and spectral properties of these two sequences in the presence of Na⁺ or K⁺ affords a basis for defining the role of adenine in these structures. In Na⁺, the A residue stabilizes the structure formed by each oligomer significantly, presumably by a base-pairing interaction with T. In K⁺, by contrast, there is little difference in stability. In two- and four-copy oligomers, the A sequence has a different structure from its T analog, as detected by CD spectroscopy. In the presence of either Na⁺ or K⁺, the tetraplexes of A and T interact with intercalators.