Abstract
The nucleic acids are capable of organizing in variety of noncanonical structures. In this chapter we will highlight the different structures adopted by nucleic acids, forces stabilizing these structures, and their biological significance. The ability of DNA and RNA to organize into three-stranded structures has been utilized in various therapeutic applications. Also the four-stranded structures assumed by G- and C-rich nucleic acid sequences have been exploited in nanotechnology. A special focus has been laid here on the nature of telomeric DNA and its role in cancer and aging. We have further discussed the biophysical approaches to measure the thermodynamic parameters determining the stability of triplex and quadruplex structures. The chapter also describes the RNA tertiary interactions such as coaxial stacking, tetraloop–receptor interactions, A-minor motifs, and ribose zippers responsible for folding, stability, and maintenance of RNA three-dimensional structure. Finally, the interactions responsible for higher-order chromatin structures assumed by eukaryotic and bacterial DNA are presented here.
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Arivaradarajan, P. (2017). Higher-Order Nucleic Acid Structures. In: Misra, G. (eds) Introduction to Biomolecular Structure and Biophysics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4968-2_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4968-2_4
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