Effect of a modified thymine on the structure and stability of [d(TGGGT)]4 quadruplex

Telomeric guanine-rich sequence can adopt quadruplex structures that are important for their biological role in chromosomal stabilisation. G quartets are characterised by the cyclic hydrogen bonding of four guanine bases in a coplanar arrangement and their stability is ion-dependent. In this work we compare the stability of [d(TGGGT)]₄ and [d(T*GGGT)]₄ quadruplexes. The last one contains a modified thymine, where the hydroxyl group substitutes one hydrogen atom of the methyl group of the thymine in the [d(TGGGT)]₄ sequence. We used a combination of spectroscopic, calorimetric and computational techniques to characterise the G-quadruplex formation. NMR and CD spectra of [d(T*GGGT)]₄ were characteristic of parallel-stranded, tetramolecular quadruplex. CD and DSC melting experiments reveal that [d(T*GGGT)]₄ is less stable that unmodified quadruplex. Molecular models suggest possible explanation for the observed behaviour.