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Biophysical Approaches To Study Dna Base Flipping

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Biophysics and the Challenges of Emerging Threats

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The most dramatic yet localized enzyme-induced conformational deformation of the helical structure of DNA is base flipping, in which a nucleobase is unpaired, removed from the stack and further rotated out to assume a fully extrahelical position. Since its first demonstration in crystal structures of cytosine methyltransferase-DNA complexes numerous studies revealed that base flipping is a fundamental mechanism in DNA modification and repair, mediates sequence-specific recognition by restriction endonucle-ases, and is part of replication, transcription and recombination events. Here we discuss experimental and theoretical approaches used to study DNA base flipping in different systems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Biological DNA Modification Institute of Biotechnology, Vilnius, LT-02241, Lithuania

    Saulius KlimaŠauskas, Zita LiutkeviČiŪtĖ & Dalia DaujotytĖ

  2. MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 0QH, United Kingdom

    Saulius KlimaŠauskas, Zita LiutkeviČiŪtĖ & Dalia DaujotytĖ

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  1. Saulius KlimaŠauskas
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  1. SMRL & Dept. of Structural Biology D105A Fairchild Science Building, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Joseph D. Puglisi

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KlimaŠauskas, S., LiutkeviČiŪtĖ, Z., DaujotytĖ, D. (2009). Biophysical Approaches To Study Dna Base Flipping. In: Puglisi, J.D. (eds) Biophysics and the Challenges of Emerging Threats. NATO Science for Peace and Security Series B: Physics and Biophysics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2368-1_4

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