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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 18: Posters - DNA, RNA and Related Enzymes

BP 18.1: Poster

Monday, March 7, 2016, 17:30–19:30, Poster C

Molecular Dynamics simulations for the detection of unfolding pathways and stable conformations of DNA structures — •Ewa Anna Oprzeska-Zingrebe and Jens Smiatek — Institute for Computational Physics, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

The formation of specific DNA secondary and tertiary structures has been reported to play a key role in various range of biological processes, such as transcription termination or intermolecular binding. Among them, a pivotal role has been ascribed to DNA i-Motif and G-Quadruplex structures, which due to their biological appearance in telomeric and centromeric DNA are considered as potential targets for various diseases. Recent studies on high-temperature unfolding simulations of the DNA i-Motifs have revealed the existence of stable hairpin configurations as an intermediate step in the unfolding pathway of DNA higher-order structures. In our study, we investigate a simple 7-nucleotide DNA hairpin structure with the sequence d(GCGAAGC) to achieve detailed insight into the stability of DNA hairpin structures and their interaction with the osmolyte urea.