Abstract
THE subject of DNA–small molecule binding has received much attention in recent years. Particular emphasis has been placed on aminoacridine binding1, and many studies have employed proflavine (Fig. 1) as perhaps the classical interacting agent of these series of drugs. The DNA-binding properties of proflavine cause it to act as a frameshift mutagen, and this ability has been extensively utilised in molecular genetics2.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Peacocke, A. R., in The Acridinies, (edit. by Acheson, R. M.), (John Wiley, New York, 1973).
Crick, F. H. C., Barnett, L., Brenner, S., and Watts-Tobin, R. J., Nature, 192, 1227–1232 (1961).
Peacocke, A. R., and Skerrett, N. J. H., Trans. Faraday Soc., 52, 261–279 (1956).
Lerman, L. S., J. molec. Biol., 3, 18–30 (1961).
Pritchard, N. J., Blake, A., and Peacocke, A. R., Nature, 212, 1360–1361 (1966).
Germain, G., Main, P., and Woolfson, M. M., Acta crystallogr., A 27, 368–376 (1971).
Tollin, P., and Cochran, W., Acta crystallogr., 17, 1332–1334 (1964).
Albert, A., The Acridines, (Edward Arnold, London, 1966).
Obendorf, S. K., Carrell, S. K., and Glusker, J. P., Acta crystallogr., B 30, 1408–1411 (1974).
Talaki, R., Carrell, S. K., and Glusker, J. P., Acta crystallogr., B 30, 1044–1047 (1974).
Turner, D. H., Flynn, G. W., Lundberg, S. K., Faller, L. D., and Sutin, N., Nature, 239, 215–217 (1972).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
NEIDLE, S., JONES, T. Crystal structure of proflavine, a DNA binding agent. Nature 253, 284–285 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1038/253284a0
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/253284a0
- Springer Nature Limited