Possible tropical lakes on Titan from observations of dark terrain.

Titan has clouds, rain and lakes--like Earth--but composed of methane rather than water. Unlike Earth, most of the condensable methane (the equivalent of 5 m depth globally averaged) lies in the atmosphere. Liquid detected on the surface (about 2 m deep) has been found by radar images only poleward of 50° latitude, while dune fields pervade the tropics.

8-oxoguanine in a quadruplex of the human telomere DNA sequence.

8-Oxoguanine is a ubiquitous oxidative base lesion. We report here on the effect of this lesion on the structure and stability of quadruplexes formed by the human telomeric DNA sequence 5'-dG(3)(TTAG(3))(3) in NaCl and KCl. CD, PAGE and absorption-based thermodynamic stability data showed that replacement of any of the tetrad-forming guanines by 8-oxoguanine did not hinder the formation of monomolecular, antiparallel quadruplexes in NaCl.

Quadruplexes of human telomere DNA analogs designed to contain G:A:G:A, G:G:A:A, and A:A:A:A tetrads.

Replacement of two to four guanines by adenines in the human telomere DNA repeat dG3(TTAG3)3 did not hinder the formation of quadruplexes if the substitutions took place in the terminal tetrad bridged by the diagonal loop of the intramolecular antiparallel three-tetrad scaffold, as proved by CD and PAGE in both Na+ and K+ solutions. Thermodynamic data showed that, in Na+ solution, the dG3(TTAG3)3 quadruplex was destabilized, the least by the two G:A:G:A tetrads, the most by the G:G:A:A tetrad in which the adenosines replaced syn-guanosines. In physiological K+ solution, the highest destabilization was caused by the 4A tetrad.

Substitution of adenine for guanine in the quadruplex-forming human telomere DNA sequence G(3)(T(2)AG(3))(3).

We have studied the formation and structural properties of quadruplexes of the human telomeric DNA sequence G(3)(T(2)AG(3))(3) and related sequences in which each guanine base was replaced by an adenine base. None of these single base substitutions hindered the formation of antiparallel quadruplexes, as shown by circular dichroism, gel electrophoresis, and UV thermal stability measurements in NaCl solutions. Effect of substitution did differ, however, depending on the position of the substituted base.