Chunling Cao

Date of Graduation

Summer 2014

Degree

Master of Science in Chemistry

Department

Chemistry and Biochemistry

Committee Chair

Gary Meints

Abstract

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) contains all the genetic information needed for life. It is important for the DNA integrity of the sequence and structure be maintained in order to interact properly with proteins. The purpose of this project is to determine if there are significant changes to DNA structure due to the lesion 3, N4-etheno-2'-deoxycytidine (εC). The DNA sequence I studied is [ds(5'-C-G-C-G-A-A-T-T-C-G-C-G-3') 2] as a referenced sequence since it has been well studied via 2D NMR. The εC lesion is formed by a reaction with vinyl chloride metabolites or via lipid peroxidation, and base excision repair (BER) is the main pathway to repair this lesion. In order to study this particular sequence, I used 2D solution NMR experiment such as NOESY, TOSCY and HSQC, mapping the 1H chemical shift of the damaged DNA sequence with the intensity of the NOE interactions, compared to the control sequence, to determine the impact of the lesion. My results show the structure changed at the site of lesion and its opposite base pairing partner.

Keywords

Ethenocytidine, DNA, DNA repair, BER, NMR

Subject Categories

Chemistry

Copyright

© Chunling Cao

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