The effect of osmolytes and small molecule on Quadruplex–WC duplex equilibrium: a fluorescence resonance energy transfer study

The structural competition between the G-quadruplex and Watson-Crick duplex has been implicated for the repetitive DNA sequences, but the factors influencing this competitive equilibrium in the natural and pharmacological context need to be elucidated. Using a 21mer 5'-Fluorescein-d[(G3TTA)3G3]-TAMRA-3' as a model system, extensive fluorescence resonance energy transfer analysis was carried out to investigate sensitivity of this equilibrium to osmotic stress and quadruplex selective small molecule. The binding affinities and kinetics involved in the hybridization of quadruplex to its complementary strand in the absence and presence of different concentrations of osmolytes (ethylene glycol and glycerol) and a quadruplex selective ligand (cationic porphyrin-TMPyP4) were determined. The presence of osmolytes and cationic porphyrin decreased the binding affinity of quadruplex to its complementary strand and slowed the kinetics of the reaction by delaying the hybridization process. Our binding data analysis indicates that the presence of either osmolytes or porphyrin increase the amount of quadruplex in the equilibrium. In 100 mM KCl solution, when 30 nM of each of the components, i.e. quadruplex and the complementary strand, were mixed together, the amount of quadruplex present in the system under equilibrium were 17.6, 23.4, 23.1 and 19.6 nM in the absence and presence of 10% ethylene glycol, 10% glycerol and 150 nM TMPyP4, respectively. Fluorescence melting profile of quadruplex in the absence and presence of these perturbants confirm the findings that osmolytes and cationic porphyrin stabilize quadruplex, and thus, shift the equilibrium to quadruplex formation.