STRUCTURE OF POLY D(A) . POLY D(T)

On the basis of the x-ray data from polycrystalline and well oriented fibers of the sodium salt of poly d(A) . poly d(T) (Arnott et al, Nucl. Acids Res. 11, 4141-4155 (1983)), a revised B'-DNA model incorporating B-like adenine and thymine strands is shown to give a much better x-ray agreement (R = 0.25) than the previously assigned model consisting of mixed sugar conformations in the two strands. The narrowing of the minor and the widening of the major grooves are promiscuous features of B'-DNA, which are common to all poly d(purine) - poly d(pyrimidine) duplexes with two hydrogen bonded base-pairs and are in marked contrast with classical B-DNA. Due to modest propeller (-15-degrees), the cross strand diagonal hydrogen bonds (0.37 nm) in this duplex are not as strong as those in AT-rich oligonucleotide crystal structures.