Presenter Information

DEEMA MARTINIFollow

Major

Neuroscience

Anticipated Graduation Year

2020

Access Type

Open Access

Abstract

Numerous genetic disorders arise from the propensity of certain repetitive DNA sequences to form non-helical structures due to extensive self-complementarity; their formation occurs within crowded cellular conditions. Using single-molecule FRET microscopy, the effect of molecular crowding on the stability and dynamics of DNA hairpins containing trinucleotide repeat sequences (CAG)5 and (CTG)5 were explored in the presence of crowding agents. These induce a greater acceleration of hairpin melting and overall destabilization, contrasting observations from fully paired DNA controls. The findings indicate that molecular crowding may confer some protective benefit to genomic DNA by disrupting these deleterious structures at smaller repeat sizes.

Faculty Mentors & Instructors

Brian Cannon, Ph.D, Department of Physics

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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Molecular Crowding Effects on Stability and Kinetics of Trinucleotide Repeat Hairpins

Numerous genetic disorders arise from the propensity of certain repetitive DNA sequences to form non-helical structures due to extensive self-complementarity; their formation occurs within crowded cellular conditions. Using single-molecule FRET microscopy, the effect of molecular crowding on the stability and dynamics of DNA hairpins containing trinucleotide repeat sequences (CAG)5 and (CTG)5 were explored in the presence of crowding agents. These induce a greater acceleration of hairpin melting and overall destabilization, contrasting observations from fully paired DNA controls. The findings indicate that molecular crowding may confer some protective benefit to genomic DNA by disrupting these deleterious structures at smaller repeat sizes.