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G-Quadruplex Nucleic Acids pp 275–298Cite as

Single-Molecule Investigations of G-Quadruplex

Part of the Methods in Molecular Biology book series (MIMB,volume 2035)

Abstract

The genome-wide occurrence of G-quadruplexes and their demonstrated biological activities call for detailed understanding on the stability and transition kinetics of the structures. Although the core structural element in a G-quadruplex is simple and requires only four tandem repeats of Guanine rich sequences, there is rather rich conformational diversity in this structure. Corresponding to this structural diversity, it displays involved transition kinetics within individual G-quadruplexes and complicated interconversion among different G-quadruplex species. Due to the inherently high signal-to-noise ratio in the measurement, single-molecule tools offer a unique capability to investigate the thermodynamic, kinetic, and mechanical properties of G-quadruplexes with dynamic conformations. In this chapter, we describe different single molecule methods such as atomic-force microscopy (AFM), single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer (smFRET), optical, magnetic, and magneto-optical tweezers to investigate G-quadruplex structures as well as their interactions with small-molecule ligands.

Key words

  • G-quadruplex
  • Single-molecule methods
  • AFM
  • smFRET
  • Magnetic tweezers
  • Optical tweezers
  • Magneto-optical tweezers

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  • DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4939-9666-7_16
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Acknowledgments

We are grateful for NIH R01CA236350 and NSF1609514 for financial support.

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  1. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA

    Shankar Mandal, Mohammed Enamul Hoque & Hanbin Mao

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  1. Shankar Mandal
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  2. Mohammed Enamul Hoque
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  3. Hanbin Mao
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Correspondence to Hanbin Mao .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, Purdue University, Purdue Center for Cancer Research, Purdue Institute for Drug Discovery, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    Danzhou Yang

  2. Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    Dr. Clement Lin

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Mandal, S., Hoque, M.E., Mao, H. (2019). Single-Molecule Investigations of G-Quadruplex. In: Yang, D., Lin, C. (eds) G-Quadruplex Nucleic Acids. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2035. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9666-7_16

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