Biopolymers and cell. 1990. Volume 6. № 6. 52 - 58

N. I. Lukina, T. R. Soidla

A COMPUTER-AIDED 'SEARCH FOR GIANT DNA-PROTEIN COMPLEXES

Summary

    Two simple programs to detect extensive spatial asymmetries of DNA were created. The programs were used to study the 2 u,m plasmid of Saccharomyces yeast. A nearly 600 bp. uninterrupted region of special spatial orientation of G-C base pairs was found covering the REP 3 locus. The anomaly was obvious when estimating the helix lead approx. 104.4 (but not at 1 ,10:0 or 10.6). It is supposed that the region corresponds to a giant non-nuc-leosomal D!NA-protein complex supposedly of an «oozing» mechanism according to the classification by Ptashne (19*86). The complex is also indicated by some recent experimen¬tal results. The new programs can be used for searching giant DNA-protein complexes.