DNA G-Quadruplex Recognition In Vitro and in Live Cells by a Structure-Specific Nanobody

G-quadruplexes (G4s) are alternative DNA secondary structures of the human genome with key roles in transcription, replication and genome stability. Structure-specific small molecules and antibodies, such as BG4, have facilitated the detection of G4s in cells and chromatin. The availability of an alternative probe to BG4 would help to address some of its potential limitations in mapping G4 structures and would independently confirm and/or extend our earlier findings. Herein, we describe the development of SG4, a camelid single-chain only derived nanobody raised against the human MycG4 promoter structure. SG4 is small, easily expressed and demonstrates low nanomolar affinity for folded G4 structures in vitro. Clues to SG4 binding were obtained experimentally by mutating single amino acids. Moreover, AlphaFold2 protein predictions combined with molecular dynamics/docking simulations generated a de novo binding model of SG4-G4 interactions that identifies key amino acids with significant contributions to G4 binding. Using SG4 in G4 ChIP-seq, we also demonstrate the detection of G4 structures in two cancer cell lines. SG4 thus provides an alternative tool for G4 genome mapping and independently verifies our earlier findings. Two cancer cells lines, U2OS and K562, have been profiled using a nanobody able to bind to DNA G4 secondary structures. For each cell line 3 biological replicates were performed and for each biological replicates 3 technical were prepared along with an input control.