Polarized Intercalation Site in Z-DNA

Z-DNA can support an intercalation conformation exhibiting the 5′-pu-p-py-3′ sequence specificity in contrast to the experimentally observed in B-DNA intercalation X-ray crystallographic DNA: drug models, however the binding site in Z-DNA is determined by the alternating anti-syn backbone rather than base sequence. Z-DNA also exhibits a conformationally polarized intercalation site within the dimer repeat unit that is consistent with the neighbor exclusion principle. Additionally, Z-DNA conformers exhibit (positive) winding of the dimer repeat unit upon assumption of the intercalation conformation.