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From a structural average to the conformational ensemble of a DNA bulge

Significance Obtaining the conformational ensembles of biological macromolecules, beyond average structures, is extremely challenging but necessary for a complete understanding of their folding and functions. Such insights may also lead to the rational design of therapeutics that can target less-ordered macromolecules and may advance the design of nanostructures and nanomachines from nucleic acids. We have applied X-ray interferometry to estimate the conformational ensemble of a small-model macromolecule, a DNA bulge, representative of helix–junction–helix building blocks of natural RNAs and designed DNA nanostructures. The measured ensemble, in combination with molecular dynamics simulations, provides testable atomic-level models. X-ray interferometry is extremely sensitive and can detect changes in the ensemble arising from different bulge sequences and solution salt conditions. Direct experimental measurements of conformational ensembles are critical for understanding macromolecular function, but traditional biophysical methods do not directly report the solution ensemble of a macromolecule. Small-angle X-ray scattering interferometry has the potential to overcome this limitation by providing the instantaneous distance distribution between pairs of gold-nanocrystal probes conjugated to a macromolecule in solution. Our X-ray interferometry experiments reveal an increasing bend angle of DNA duplexes with bulges of one, three, and five adenosine residues, consistent with previous FRET measurements, and further reveal an increasingly broad conformational ensemble with increasing bulge length. The distance distributions for the AAA bulge duplex (3A-DNA) with six different Au-Au pairs provide strong evidence against a simple elastic model in which fluctuations occur about a single conformational state. Instead, the measured distance distributions suggest a 3A-DNA ensemble with multiple conformational states predominantly across a region of conformational space with bend angles between 24 and 85 degrees and characteristic bend directions and helical twists and displacements. Additional X-ray interferometry experiments revealed perturbations to the ensemble from changes in ionic conditions and the bulge sequence, effects that can be understood in terms of electrostatic and stacking contributions to the ensemble and that demonstrate the sensitivity of X-ray interferometry. Combining X-ray interferometry ensemble data with molecular dynamics simulations gave atomic-level models of representative conformational states and of the molecular interactions that may shape the ensemble, and fluorescence measurements with 2-aminopurine-substituted 3A-DNA provided initial tests of these atomistic models. More generally, X-ray interferometry will provide powerful benchmarks for testing and developing computational methods.