Poster abstracts
Poster number 40 submitted by Sarah Rundell
Structure of bPNA triplex hybrid determined by x-ray crystallography
Sarah Rundell (Chemistry)
Abstract:
X-Ray crystallography is a widely beneficial tool for determining molecular structures and binding models. Our lab has identified oligo T/U recognition with melamine in triplex structures, however, we still lack information about the binding mode. The goal is to solve the triplex structure of small molecules and peptides that hybridize with DNA/RNA to elucidate their binding behavior. The structures will be used in rational design of DNA/RNA binding molecules which may extend into nucleotide-based therapeutics. 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 checked 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. From here, we will focus on screening our confirmed crystal conditions to grow larger, single crystals via hanging drop vapor diffusion to utilize in X-ray diffraction.
Keywords: Crystallization, Triplex , DNARNA