Water plays an important role in stabilizing the structure of DNA and mediating its interactions. Here, the hydration of DNA was analyzed in terms of dinucleotide fragments from an ensemble of 2727 nonredundant DNA chains containing 41 853 dinucleotides and 316 265 associated first-shell water molecules. The dinucleotides were classified into categories based on their 16 sequences and the previously determined structural classes known as nucleotide conformers (NtCs). The construction of hydrated dinucleotide building blocks allowed dinucleotide hydration to be calculated as the probability of water density distributions. Peaks in the water densities, known as hydration sites (HSs), uncovered the interplay between base and sugar-phosphate hydration in the context of sequence and structure. To demonstrate the predictive power of hydrated DNA building blocks, they were then used to predict hydration in an independent set of crystal and NMR structures. In ten tested crystal structures, the positions of predicted HSs and experimental waters were in good agreement (more than 40% were within 0.5 Å) and correctly reproduced the known features of DNA hydration, for example the `spine of hydration' in B-DNA. Therefore, it is proposed that hydrated building blocks can be used to predict DNA hydration in structures solved by NMR and cryo-EM, thus providing a guide to the interpretation of experimental data and computer models. The data for the hydrated building blocks and the predictions are available for browsing and visualization at the website https://watlas.datmos.org/watna/.

• Keywords
• DNA hydration, WatNA, dinucleotide fragments, knowledge-based prediction, water,
• MeSH
• DNA * chemistry   MeSH
• Nucleic Acid Conformation MeSH
• Nucleotides MeSH
• Water * chemistry   MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Names of Substances
• DNA * MeSH
• Nucleotides MeSH
• Water * MeSH

A detailed description of the dnatco.datmos.org web server implementing the universal structural alphabet of nucleic acids is presented. It is capable of processing any mmCIF- or PDB-formatted files containing DNA or RNA molecules; these can either be uploaded by the user or supplied as the wwPDB or PDB-REDO structural database access code. The web server performs an assignment of the nucleic acid conformations and presents the results for the intuitive annotation, validation, modeling and refinement of nucleic acids.

• Keywords
• annotation, nucleic acids, refinement, structural alphabets, validation,
• MeSH
• Databases, Nucleic Acid MeSH
• DNA chemistry   MeSH
• Internet MeSH
• Nucleic Acid Conformation MeSH
• Models, Molecular MeSH
• RNA chemistry   MeSH
• Software * MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Names of Substances
• DNA MeSH
• RNA MeSH

We analyzed the structural behavior of DNA complexed with regulatory proteins and the nucleosome core particle (NCP). The three-dimensional structures of almost 25 thousand dinucleotide steps from more than 500 sequentially non-redundant crystal structures were classified by using DNA structural alphabet CANA (Conformational Alphabet of Nucleic Acids) and associations between ten CANA letters and sixteen dinucleotide sequences were investigated. The associations showed features discriminating between specific and non-specific binding of DNA to proteins. Important is the specific role of two DNA structural forms, A-DNA, and BII-DNA, represented by the CANA letters AAA and BB2: AAA structures are avoided in non-specific NCP complexes, where the wrapping of the DNA duplex is explained by the periodic occurrence of BB2 every 10.3 steps. In both regulatory and NCP complexes, the extent of bending of the DNA local helical axis does not influence proportional representation of the CANA alphabet letters, namely the relative incidences of AAA and BB2 remain constant in bent and straight duplexes.

• Keywords
• DNA, DNA-protein recognition, histone, molecular structure, nucleosome core particle, regulatory proteins, transcription factors,
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

The dynamics of protein and nucleic acid structures is as important as their average static picture. The local molecular dynamics concealed in diffraction images is expressed as so-called B factors. To find out how the crystal-derived B factors represent the dynamic behaviour of atoms and residues of proteins and DNA in their complexes, the distributions of scaled B factors from a carefully curated data set of over 700 protein-DNA crystal structures were analyzed [Schneider et al. (2014), Nucleic Acids Res. 42, 3381-3394]. Amino acids and nucleotides were categorized based on their molecular neighbourhood as solvent-accessible, solvent-inaccessible (i.e. forming the protein core) or lying at protein-protein or protein-DNA interfaces; the backbone and side-chain atoms were analyzed separately. The B factors of two types of crystal-ordered water molecules were also analyzed. The analysis confirmed several expected features of protein and DNA dynamics, but also revealed surprising facts. Solvent-accessible amino acids have B factors that are larger than those of residues at the biomolecular interfaces, and core-forming amino acids are the most restricted in their movement. A unique feature of the latter group is that their side-chain and backbone atoms are restricted in their movement to the same extent; in all other amino-acid groups the side chains are more floppy than the backbone. The low values of the B factors of water molecules bridging proteins with DNA and the very large fluctuations of DNA phosphates are surprising. The features discriminating different types of residues are less pronounced in structures with lower crystallographic resolution. Some of the observed trends are likely to be the consequence of improper refinement protocols that may need to be rectified.

• Keywords
• B factors, local dynamics,
• MeSH
• DNA chemistry   MeSH
• Crystallography, X-Ray methods   MeSH
• Proteins chemistry   MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
• Names of Substances
• DNA MeSH
• Proteins MeSH