WebTetrado: A webserver to explore quadruplexes in nucleic acid 3D structures

Abstract

Quadruplexes are four-stranded DNA/RNA motifs of high functional significance that fold into complex shapes. They are widely recognized as important regulators of genomic processes and are among the most frequently investigated potential drug targets. Despite interest in quadruplexes, few studies focus on automatic tools that help to understand the many unique features of their 3D folds. In this paper, we introduce WebTetrado, a web server for analyzing 3D structures of quadruplex structures. It has a user-friendly interface and offers many advanced features, including automatic identification, annotation, classification, and visualization of the motif. The program applies to the experimental or in silico generated 3D models provided in the PDB and PDBx/mmCIF files. It supports canonical G-quadruplexes as well as non-G-based quartets. It can process unimolecular, bimolecular, and tetramolecular quadruplexes. WebTetrado is implemented as a publicly available web server with an intuitive interface and can be freely accessed at https://webtetrado.cs.put.poznan.pl/.