Torsional flexibility of DNA as revealed by conformational analysis

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Abstract
The thermal fluctuations of a regular double helix belonging to the B-family were studied by means of atom-atomic potentials method. The winding angle fluctuation was found to be 2.4 degrees for poly(dA):poly(dT) and 3.0 degrees for poly(dG):poly(dC). The reasonable agreement of these estimations with those obtained experimentally reveals the essential role of the small-amplitude torsional vibrations of atoms in the mechanism of the double helix flexibility. The calculated equilibrium winding angle, tau 0, essentially depends on the degree of neutralization of phosphate groups, being about 35.5 degrees for the full neutralization. The deoxyribose pucker is closely related to the tau angle: while tau proceeds from 30 degrees to 45 degrees the pseudorotation phase angle, P, increases from 126 degrees to 164 degrees. Fluctuations of the angles TL and TW, which specify inclination of the bases to the helix axis, were evaluated to be 5 degrees-10 degrees. Possible correlation between conformational changes in the adjacent nucleotides is discussed.