Structure of a stacked anthraquinone–DNA complex

The crystal structure of the telomeric sequence d(UBrAGG) interacting with an anthraquinone derivative has been solved by MAD. In all previously studied complexes of intercalating drugs, the drug is usually sandwiched between two DNA base pairs. Instead, the present structure looks like a crystal of stacked anthraquinone molecules in which isolated base pairs are intercalated. Unusual base pairs are present in the structure, such as G·G and A·UBr reverse Watson-Crick base pairs. © 2010 International Union of Crystallography All rights reserved.
We acknowledge support from the European Project MPRN-CT-2000-00009 and from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, project No. BFU 2009-10380.