Quadruplex Nanostructures of d(TGGGGT): Influence of Sodium and Potassium Ions

The Tetrahymena telomeric repeat sequence d(TG(4)T) contains only guanine (G) and thymine (T) bases and has medical and nanotechnological applications because of its ability to self-assemble into stiff tetra-molecular parallel-stranded G-quadruplexes. The hexadeoxynucleotide d(TG(4)T) was studied using atomic force microscopy (AFM) on the highly oriented pyrolytic graphite surface and differential pulse (DP) voltammetry at a glassy carbon electrode. The d(TG(4)T) single-strands self-assembled into G-quadruplex structures, very fast in K+ ions solution and slowly in Na+ ions containing solution. The G-quadruplex structures were detected in AFM by the adsorption of small spherical aggregates and by DP voltammetry by the G oxidation peak decrease and G-quartets oxidation peak occurrence, in a time and K+ ions concentration dependent manner. In the presence of Na+ ions, the d(TG(4)T) single-strands also slowly self-assembled into higher-order nanostructures, detected by AFM as short nanowires and nanostructured films that were never observed in K+ ions containing solution.