Thermodynamic Consequences of the Hyperoxidized Guanine Lesion Guanidinohydantoin in Duplex DNA

Guanidinohydantoin (Gh) is a hyperoxidized DNA lesion produced by oxidation of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine (8-oxoG). Previous work has shown that Gh is potently mutagenic in both in vitro and in vivo coding for G → T and G → C transversion mutations. In this work, analysis by circular dichroism shows that the Gh lesion does not significantly alter the global structure of a 15-mer duplex and that the DNA remains in the B-form. However, we find that Gh causes a large decrease in the thermal stability, decreasing the duplex melting temperature by ∼17 °C relative to an unmodified duplex control. Using optical melting analysis and differential scanning calorimetry, the thermodynamic parameters describing duplex melting were also determined. We find that the Gh lesion causes a dramatic decrease in the enthalpic stability of the duplex. This enthalpic destabilization is somewhat tempered by entropic stabilization; yet, Gh results in an overall decrease in thermodynamic stability of the duplex relative to a control that lacks DNA damage, with a ΔΔG° of −7 kcal/mol. These results contribute to our understanding of the consequences of hyperoxidation of G and provide insight into how the thermal and thermodynamic destabilization caused by Gh may influence replication and/or repair of the lesion.