Guanine rich (G-rich) nucleic acids form G-quadruplex structures that are implicated in many biological processes, pharmaceutical applications, and molecular machinery. The folding equilibrium constant (Kf) is a quantitative parameter describing the ability of formation of a G-quadruplex. G-quadruplex structures in vivo are associated with flanking structures and associated with proteins. Unfortunately, the currently available methods area is only capable of deriving Kf from core sequences. TAN Zheng’s research team established an isothermal differential hybridization (IDH) method capable of determining the K_F of G-quadruplex of both core sequences and sequences associated with proteins or flanking structures. The method can provide a useful tool for evaluating the ability to form G-quadruplex under physiological circumstances.

This work was supported by MSTC and NSFC.

Refer to: Quan Wang, Li Ma, Yu-hua Hao, and Zheng Tan*, Folding Equilibrium Constants of Telomere G-Quadruplexes in Free State or Associated with Proteins Determined by Isothermal Differential Hybridization. Anal. Chem. 2010, 82, 9469–9475；DOI: 10.1021/ac102168m.