[hal-01078223] Construction of DNA hemicatenanes from two small circular DNA molecules

DNA hemicatenanes one of the simplest possible junctions between two double strand DNA molecules have frequently been mentioned in the literature for their possible function in DNA replication recombination repair and organization in chromosomes They have been little studied experimentally however due to the lack of an appropriate method for their preparation Here we have designed a method to build hemicatenanes from two small circular DNA molecules The method involves first the assembly of two linear single strands and their circularization to form a catenane of two single strand circles and second the addition and base-pairing of the two single strand circles complementary to the first ones followed by their annealing using DNA topoisomerase I The product was purified by gel electrophoresis and characterized The arrangement of strands was as expected for a hemicatenane and clearly distinct from a full catenane In addition each circle was unwound by an average of half a double helical turn also in excellent agreement with the structure of a hemicatenane It was also observed that hemicatenanes are quickly destabilized by a single cut on any of the strands inside the junction strongly suggesting that DNA strands are able to slide easily inside the hemicatenane This method should make it possible to study the biochemical properties of hemicatenanes and to test some of the hypotheses that have been proposed about their function including a possible role for this structure in the organization of complex genomes in loops and chromosomal domains



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