PubReading [21] - DNA structure from A to B - R.Dickerson and HL. Ng

P. Shing Ho and his colleagues at Oregon State and Berkeley publish in this issue of PNAS an interesting study (1) of helical structure in the DNA hexamer GGCGCC, finding that various states that appear to be logical intermediates between A-DNA and B-DNA can be induced by methylation or bromination of cytosine or by crystal packing. Their results bear on three issues that have been argued over in the past: (i) the differences between A-DNA and B- DNA and transitions between them, (ii) the intrinsic sequence-dependent malleability of a DNA duplex, and (iii) the effects of local helix packing on DNA fine-structure. - doi-10.1073-pnas.141238898 - 2001