Search results for "nucleobase"
showing 10 items of 69 documents
The role of pyrimidine nucleobase excimers in DNA photophysics and photoreactivity
2009
Abstract Quantum chemical studies using the accurate CASPT2//CASSCF procedure show that π-stacked interactions in biochromophores such as pyrimidine (Pyr) DNA/RNA nucleobases pairs yield excimer-like situations which behave as precursors of processes like charge transfer (CT) or photoreactivity and are the source of the emissive properties in DNA. Examples are the CT between adjacent DNA nucleobases in a strand of oligonucleotides and the photodimerization taking place in cytosine (C) pairs leading to cyclobutanecytosine (CBC) mutants. These processes take place through nonadiabatic photochemical mechanisms whose evolution is determined by the presence and accessibility of conical intersect…
On the Intrinsically Low Quantum Yields of Pyrimidine DNA Photodamages: Evaluating the Reactivity of the Corresponding Minimum Energy Crossing Points
2020
The low quantum yield of photoformation of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers and pyrimidine-pyrimidone (6-4) adducts in DNA bases is usually associated with the presence of more favorable nonreactive decay paths and with the unlikeliness of exciting the system in a favorable conformation. Here, we prove that the ability of the reactive conical intersection to bring the system either back to the absorbing conformation or to the photoproduct must be considered as a fundamental factor in the low quantum yields of the mentioned photodamage. In support of the proposed model, the one order of magnitude difference in the quantum yield of formation of the cyclobutane thymine dimer with respect to the t…
A Three-State Model for the Photophysics of Adenine
2006
An ab initio theoretical study at the CASPT2 level is reported on minimum energy reaction paths, state minima, transition states, reaction barriers, and conical intersections on the potential energy hypersurfaces of two tautomers of adenine: 9H- and 7H-adenine. The obtained results led to a complete interpretation of the photophysics of adenine and derivatives, both under jet-cooled conditions and in solution, within a three-state model. The ultrafast subpicosecond fluorescence decay measured in adenine is attributed to the low-lying conical intersection (gs/pipi* La)(CI), reached from the initially populated 1(pipi* La) state along a path which is found to be barrierless only in 9H-adenine…
Unified model for the ultrafast decay of pyrimidine nucleobases.
2006
Ultrafast decay processes detected after absorption of UV radiation in gas-phase pyrimidine nucleobases uracil, thymine, and cytosine are ascribed to the barrierless character of the pathway along the low-lying 1(pipi*) hypersurface connecting the Franck-Condon region with an out-of-plane distorted ethene-like conical intersection with the ground state. Longer lifetime decays and low quantum yield emission are on the other hand related to the presence of a 1(pipi*) state planar minimum on the S1 surface and the barriers to access other conical intersections. A unified model for the three systems is established on the basis of accurate multiconfigurational CASPT2 calculations, whereas the ef…
Singlet-Triplet States Interaction Regions in DNA/RNA Nucleobase Hypersurfaces.
2010
The present study provides new insight into the intrinsic mechanisms for the population of the triplet manifold in DNA nucleobases by determining, at the multiconfigurational CASSCF/CASPT2 level, the singlet-triplet states crossing regions and the main decay paths for their lowest singlet and triplet states after near-UV irradiation. The studied singlet-triplet interacting regions are accessible along the minimum energy path of the initially populated singlet bright (1)ππ* state. In particular, all five natural DNA/RNA nucleobases have, at the end of the main minimum energy path and near a conical intersection of the ground and (1)ππ* states, a low-energy, easily accessible, singlet-triplet…
Regioselectivity of the OH Radical Addition to Uracil in Nucleic Acids. A Theoretical Approach Based on QM/MM Simulations.
2017
Oxidation of nucleic acids is ubiquitous in living beings under metabolic impairments and/or exposed to external agents such as radiation, pollutants, or drugs, playing a central role in the development of many diseases mediated by DNA/RNA degeneration. Great efforts have been devoted to unveil the molecular mechanisms behind the OH radical additions to the double bonds of nucleobases; however, the specific role of the biological environment remains relatively unexplored. The present contribution tackles the study of the OH radical addition to uracil from the gas phase to a full RNA macromolecule by means of quantum-chemistry methods combined with molecular dynamics simulations. It is shown…
Determination of the electron-detachment energies of 2'-deoxyguanosine 5'-monophosphate anion: influence of the conformation.
2009
The vertical electron-detachment energies (VDEs) of the singly charged 2'-deoxyguanosine 5'-monophosphate anion (dGMP - ) are determined by using the multiconfigurational second-order perturbation CASPT2 method at the MP2 ground-state equilibrium geometry of relevant conformers. The origin of the unique low-energy band in the gas phase photoelectron spectrum of dGMP - , with maximum at around 5.05 eV, is unambiguously assigned to electron detachment from the highest occupied molecular orbital of π-character belonging to guanine fragment of a syn conformation. The presence of a short H-bond linking the 2-amino and phosphate groups, the guanine moiety acting as proton donor, is precisely resp…
Binding Mode and Selectivity of a Scorpiand-Like Polyamine Ligand to Single- and Double-Stranded DNA and RNA: Metal- and pH-Driven Modulation
2017
The interaction of a polyazacyclophane ligand having an ethylamine pendant arm functionalized with an anthryl group (L), with the single-stranded polynucleotides polyA, polyG, polyU, and polyC as well as with the double-stranded polynucleotides polyA-polyU, poly(dAT)(2), and poly(dGC)(2) has been followed by UV/Vis titration, steady state fluorescence spectroscopy, and thermal denaturation measurements. In the case of the single-stranded polynucleotides, the UV/Vis and fluorescence titrations permit to distinguish between sequences containing purine and pyrimidine bases. For the double-stranded polynucleotides the UV/Vis measurements show for all of them hypochromicity and bathochromic shif…
Complete-active-space second-order perturbation theory (CASPT2//CASSCF) study of the dissociative electron attachment in canonical DNA nucleobases ca…
2015
Low-energy (0-3 eV) ballistic electrons originated during the irradiation of biological material can interact with DNA/RNA nucleobases yielding transient-anion species which undergo decompositions. Since the discovery that these reactions can eventually lead to strand breaking of the DNA chains, great efforts have been dedicated to their study. The main fragmentation at the 0-3 eV energy range is the ejection of a hydrogen atom from the specific nitrogen positions. In the present study, the methodological approach introduced in a previous work on uracil [I. González-Ramírez et al., J. Chem. Theory Comput. 8, 2769-2776 (2012)] is employed to study the DNA canonical nucleobases fragmentations…
Applications of guanine quartets in nanotechnology and chemical biology
2019
Guanine and related nucleobases such as guanosine, deoxyguanosine and isoguanosine are notable molecular tools for designing functional supramolecular assemblies. This popularity originates in their ability to self-assemble via a unique topological pluralism — as isolated nucleobases, discrete macrocyclic quartets and virtually infinite linear ribbons — that endows them with a considerable functional versatility. Many programmes have been launched to fine-tune the chemical properties of guanine derivatives, to make them usable under different experimental conditions, such as in organic or aqueous environments, and responsive to external stimuli, such as ionic strength, pH, light or temperat…