Seven-base-pair inverted repeats in DNA form stable hairpins in vivo in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

Palindromic sequences in single-stranded DNA and RNA have the potential for intrastrand base pairing, resulting in formation of ''hairpin'' structures. We previously reported a genetic method for detecting such structures in vivo in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Below, we describe evidence indicating that a 14-base-pair palindrome (7 bp per inverted repeat) is sufficient for formation of a hairpin in vivo.