Analyzing Secondary Structure Patterns in DNA Aptamers Identified via CompELS

In contrast to sophisticated high-throughput sequencing tools for genomic DNA, analytical tools for comparing secondary structure features between multiple single-stranded DNA sequences are less developed. For single-stranded nucleic acid ligands called aptamers, secondary structure is widely thought to play a pivotal role in driving recognition-based binding activity between an aptamer sequence and its specific target. Here, we employ a competition-based aptamer screening platform called CompELS to identify DNA aptamers for a colloidal target. We then analyze predicted secondary structures of the aptamers and a large population of random sequences to identify sequence features and patterns. Our secondary structure analysis identifies patterns ranging from position-dependent score matrixes of individual structural elements to position-independent consensus domains resulting from global alignment.