G-Quadruplexes in the Archaea Domain

Václav Brázda (1) , Yu Luo (2) , Martin Bartas (3) , Patrik Kaura (4) , Otilia Porubiaková (1, 4) , Jiří Šťastný (4, 5) , Petr Pečinka (3) , Daniela Verga (2) , Violette da Cunha (6, 7) , Tomio S Takahashi (6, 7) , Patrick Forterre (6, 7) , Hannu Myllykallio (8) , Miroslav Fojta (1) , Jean‐louis Mergny (8, 1)

1 IBP / CAS - Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences
2 CMBC - Chimie et modélisation pour la biologie du cancer
3 Ostravská univerzita / University of Ostrava
4 BUT - Brno University of Technology [Brno]
5 MENDELU - Mendel University in Brno
6 I2BC - Institut de Biologie Intégrative de la Cellule
7 ARCHEE - Biologie Cellulaire des Archées
8 LOB - Laboratoire d'Optique et Biosciences

The importance of unusual DNA structures in the regulation of basic cellular processes is an emerging field of research. Amongst local non-B DNA structures, G-quadruplexes (G4s) have gained in popularity during the last decade, and their presence and functional relevance at the DNA and RNA level has been demonstrated in a number of viral, bacterial, and eukaryotic genomes, including humans. Here, we performed the first systematic search of G4-forming sequences in all archaeal genomes available in the NCBI database. In this article, we investigate the presence and locations of G-quadruplex forming sequences using the G4Hunter algorithm. G-quadruplex-prone sequences were identified in all archaeal species, with highly significant differences in frequency, from 0.037 to 15.31 potential quadruplex sequences per kb. While G4 forming sequences were extremely abundant in Hadesarchaea archeon (strikingly, more than 50% of the Hadesarchaea archaeon isolate WYZ-LMO6 genome is a potential part of a G4-motif), they were very rare in the Parvarchaeota phylum. The presence of G-quadruplex forming sequences does not follow a random distribution with an over-representation in non-coding RNA, suggesting possible roles for ncRNA regulation. These data illustrate the unique and non-random localization of G-quadruplexes in Archaea.

Mots clés: G4-forming motif; genome analysis; Archaea; unusual nucleic acid structures; sequence prediction; G4-forming motif

Domaines: Bio-Informatique, Biologie Systémique [q-bio.QM]; Biochimie, Biologie Moléculaire

Václav Brázda, Yu Luo, Martin Bartas, Patrik Kaura, Otilia Porubiaková, et al.. G-Quadruplexes in the Archaea Domain. Biomolecules, 2020, 10 (9), pp.E1349. ⟨10.3390/biom10091349⟩. ⟨inserm-02950964⟩