DNA Can Adopt Intricate Configurations, Enabling it to Perform Novel Functions
A recent study led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health, has found that DNA has the ability to imitate protein functions by adopting intricate and three-dimensional structures.
A recent study, published in Nature, conducted by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, has demonstrated that DNA can adopt intricate and three-dimensional structures, resembling the functions of proteins.
The researchers utilized high-resolution imaging techniques to uncover the complex structure of a DNA molecule they engineered, mimicking the properties of green fluorescent protein (GFP), derived from jellyfish, which is commonly used as a fluorescent marker in laboratory settings.
Implications for Laboratory and Clinical Applications
The study’s findings represent a significant advancement in understanding how DNA can be manipulated to fold into elaborate shapes, providing valuable insights for the development of DNA molecules for various laboratory and clinical applications. For instance, an all-DNA fluorescent tag emulating GFP could serve as an effective labeling tool for specific DNA segments in biological research and diagnostic test kits, offering cost-effective solutions.
Dr. Samie Jaffrey, a co-author of the study and the Greenberg-Starr Professor of Pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medicine, expressed the transformative impact of these findings on our understanding of DNA’s capabilities. While DNA primarily exists as a stable double-stranded helical structure in nature, responsible for genetic information storage, other biological processes in cells predominantly involve proteins.
In a previous study, Dr. Jaffrey and colleagues discovered a single-stranded DNA, coined “lettuce” due to its fluorescent emission color, which imitated GFP’s activity. Lettuce achieved this by binding to a small organic molecule, a fluorophore akin to GFP’s core, and exerting pressure to activate its fluorescence. The researchers successfully demonstrated the lettuce-fluorophore combination as a fluorescent tag for the rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19, as reported in their earlier work.
To elucidate the structure of lettuce, Dr. Jaffrey’s team collaborated with Dr. Adrian R. Ferré-D’Amaré, a senior researcher at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Under the leadership of Dr. Luiz Passalacqua, a research fellow in Dr. Ferré-D’Amaré’s team, advanced imaging techniques, including cryo-electron microscopy, were employed to examine lettuce’s structure at an atomic level.
Unraveling the Unprecedented Structure of Lettuce
The researchers discovered that lettuce folds into a unique configuration, featuring a four-way junction of DNA, previously unseen, which encloses the fluorophore, activating its fluorescence. They also observed that lettuce’s folding is held together by bonds between nucleobases, the DNA’s building blocks commonly referred to as the “letters” in the DNA alphabet.
Dr. Ferré-D’Amaré emphasized that the DNA molecule they uncovered does not attempt to mimic a protein but rather accomplishes GFP-like functions in its own distinct manner. The researchers anticipate that their findings will expedite the development of fluorescent DNA molecules, including lettuce, for applications such as rapid diagnostic tests and various scientific endeavors requiring DNA-based fluorescent tagging.
Dr. Jaffrey underscored the significance of studies like theirs in facilitating the creation of innovative DNA-based tools for future advancements in scientific research and applications.
Read the original article on Phys.
Read more: DNA Gathered From Slave Skeletons Buried in Unmarked 18th-Century Burial Grounds Reveals Their History.
