Abstract
The concept of specific functional elements in genes comprising localized or transient structural discontinuities, such as Z-DNA or cruciforme, is becoming increasingly plausible1–6. Cruciforms were first detected as supercoil-dependent single-strand nuclease (S1)-sensitive sites characterized by hyphenated inverted repeat DNA sequences2,3. Here I describe examples of a novel type of S1 nuclease site found in a sea urchin histone gene repeat and characterized by homocopolymer sequences. Endonucleolytic cleavage within these sequences does not depend on supercoiling, is highly sensitive to the salt concentration and shows a reproducible pattern of maxima and minima. This type of S1 sensitivity may reflect the potential for out-of-register DNA slippage in such sequences and I speculate that related slippage events in vivo could lead to their acting as foci for recombinational events.
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Hentschel, C. Homocopolymer sequences in the spacer of a sea urchin histone gene repeat are sensitive to S1 nuclease. Nature 295, 714–716 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1038/295714a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/295714a0
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