Structure, Dynamics, and Branch Migration of a DNA Holliday Junction: A Single-Molecule Fluorescence and Modeling Study

• Published in: Biophysical journal Vol. 95; no. 9; pp. 4372 - 4383
• Main Authors: Karymov, Mikhail A., Chinnaraj, Mathivanan, Bogdanov, Aleksey, Srinivasan, Annankoil R., Zheng, Guohui, Olson, Wilma K., Lyubchenko, Yuri L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01-11-2008; Biophysical Society; The Biophysical Society
• Subjects: Base Sequence; Cell adhesion & migration; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; DNA, Cruciform - chemistry; DNA, Cruciform - genetics; DNA, Cruciform - metabolism; Fluorescence; Fluorescence in situ hybridization; Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer; Models, Molecular; Molecular biology; Molecular structure; Nucleic Acids
• ISSN: 0006-3495; 1542-0086
• DOI: 10.1529/biophysj.108.135103

The Holliday junction (HJ) is a central intermediate of various genetic processes, including homologous and site-specific DNA recombination and DNA replication. Elucidating the structure and dynamics of HJs provides the basis for understanding the molecular mechanisms of these genetic processes. Our previous single-molecule fluorescence studies led to a model according to which branch migration is a stepwise process consisting of consecutive migration and folding steps. These data led us to the conclusion that one hop can be more than 1 basepair (bp); moreover, we hypothesized that continuous runs over the entire sequence homology (5 bp) can occur. Direct measurements of the dependence of the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) value on the donor-acceptor (D-A) distance are required to justify this model and are the major goal of this article. To accomplish this goal, we performed single-molecule FRET experiments with a set of six immobile HJ molecules with varying numbers of bps between fluorescent dyes placed on opposite arms. The designs were made in such a way that the distances between the donor and acceptor were equal to the distances between the dyes formed upon 1-bp migration hops of a HJ having 10-bp homology. Using these designs, we confirmed our previous hypothesis that the migration of the junction can be measured with bp accuracy. Moreover, the FRET values determined for each acceptor-donor separation corresponded very well to the values for the steps on the FRET time trajectories, suggesting that each step corresponds to the migration of the branch at a defined depth. We used the dependence of the FRET value on the D-A distance to measure directly the size for each step on the FRET time trajectories. These data showed that one hop is not necessarily 1 bp. The junction is able to migrate over several bps, detected as one hop and confirming our model. The D-A distances extracted from the FRET properties of the immobile junctions formed the basis for modeling the HJ structures. The composite data fit a partially opened, side-by-side model with adjacent double-helical arms slightly kinked at the four-way junction and the junction as a whole adopting a global X-shaped form that mimics the coaxially stacked-X structure implicated in previous solution studies.