Determining DNA Global Structure and DNA Bending by Application of NMR Residual Dipolar Couplings

The local structure of nucleic acids can be determined from traditional solution NMR techniques, but it is usually not possible to uniquely define the global conformation of DNA or RNA double helices. This results from the short-range nature of the NOE-distance and torsion angle constraints used in generating the solution structures. However, new alignment techniques make it possible to readily measure residual dipolar couplings, which provide information on the relative orientation of individual bond vectors in the molecule. To determine the effects of incorporating dipolar couplings in the structure determinations of nucleic acids, molecular dynamics calculations were performed with simulated constraints derived from two DNA duplex target molecules. Refinements that included NOE, torsion angle, and dipolar coupling constraints were compared to refinements without dipolar couplings. These results show that dipolar couplings significantly improved the local structure while also dramatically improving the ...