Title

Exploration of the Structural and Energetic Landscape of Glycol Nucleic Acids

Author

Emily A. Sleeman, Concordia University - Portland

Date of Award

1-1-2013

Document Type

Poster

College

College of Arts & Sciences

Department

Math & Science

Abstract

• Glycol nucleic acid (GNA) is a non-natural analog of DNA
• In place of the deoxyribose unit of DNA, GNA has an acyclic ethylene glycol unit (Fig. 1)
• The differences between DNA and GNA are evident in the duplex structure (Fig. 3)
• Instead of a major and minor groove, GNA has one large groove (Fig. 3)
• The base pairs of GNA wrap around the single groove like a ribbon on a spool (Fig. 3)
• GNA has primarily intra-strand base stacking, with each base stacking on top of a base of the opposite strand, as opposed to the inter-strand base stacking of DNA (Fig. 2)
• GNA has a higher stability than DNA, as shown by its melting point being, on average, 20 degrees Celsius higher than DNA
• The stability of GNA appears to be due to entropic factors, not enthalpic factors
• Due to its stability and unique shape, GNA is of interest for its use in place of DNA as a molecular scaffold
• Molecular dynamics (MD) uses classical laws of motion to follow the movement of atoms or molecules in computer simulations
• MD can be used to explore the properties of nucleic acids
• Studies comparing MD simulations to atomic force microscopy have found that the results of simulated pulling of nucleic acids are accurate and realistic

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