Attacking mechanism of hydroxyl radical to DNA base-pair: density functional study in vacuum and in water.

Recently, the influence of radiation on human body has been recognized as a serious problem. In particular, highly reactive hydroxyl radicals *OH produced by the radiation react with DNA, resulting in a great damage on its structure and electronic properties. It is thus important to investigate the reaction mechanism of *OH to DNA for elucidating the initial damage in DNA induced by the radiation. In the present study, we search for transition states (TS) of the reaction between G-C/A-T base-pair and [Formula: see text] in vacuum and in water, by the density functional theory (DFT) calculations. At first, we obtain the stable structures for the dehydrogenated G-C and A-T, in which the hydrogen atom of NH2 group of G or A base is abstracted by [Formula: see text]. From the structures of the dehydrogenated as well as the natural base-pairs, the TS between these structures is searched for and the activation free energy (AFE) is estimated for the reaction. In vacuum, AFEs for the G-C and A-T are almost the same each other, while the stabilization energy by the reaction for G-C is about 4.9 kcal/mol larger than that for A-T, indicating that the population of the dehydrogenated G-C is remarkably larger than that of the dehydrogenated A-T in vacuum. On the other hand, in water approximated by the continuum solvation model, the AFE for A-T is 2.6 kcal/mol smaller than that for G-C, indicating that the reaction dehydrogenated by [Formula: see text] occurs more frequently for the solvated A-T base-pair than G-C.

The role of molecular structure of sugar-phosphate backbone and nucleic acid bases in the formation of single-stranded and double-stranded DNA structures.

Our previous DFT computations of deoxydinucleoside monophosphate complexes with Na(+)-ions (dDMPs) have demonstrated that the main characteristics of Watson-Crick (WC) right-handed duplex families are predefined in the local energy minima of dDMPs. In this work, we study the mechanisms of contribution of chemically monotonous sugar-phosphate backbone and the bases into the double helix irregularity. Geometry optimization of sugar-phosphate backbone produces energy minima matching the WC DNA conformations. Studying the conformational variability of dDMPs in response to sequence permutation, we found that simple replacement of bases in the previously fully optimized dDMPs, e.g. by constructing Pyr-Pur from Pur-Pyr, and Pur-Pyr from Pyr-Pur sequences, while retaining the backbone geometry, automatically produces the mutual base position characteristic of the target sequence. Based on that, we infer that the directionality and the preferable regions of the sugar-phosphate torsions, combined with the difference of purines from pyrimidines in ring shape, determines the sequence dependence of the structure of WC DNA. No such sequence dependence exists in dDMPs corresponding to other DNA conformations (e.g., Z-family and Hoogsteen duplexes). Unlike other duplexes, WC helix is unique by its ability to match the local energy minima of the free single strand to the preferable conformations of the duplex.

On the mechanism of the mutagenic action of 5-bromouracil: a DFT study of uracil and 5-bromouracil in a water cluster.

Density functional theory calculations on the canonical (keto) and rare (enol) tautomeric forms of uracil and 5-bromouracil in a cluster consisting of 50 water molecules are presented. The keto form of uracil is favored over the enol tautomer in both the gas phase and solution. However, the presence of the water cluster reverses the tautomeric preference of 5-bromouracil, rendering the rare tautomeric form to be preferred over the canonical form in aqueous solution. This effect is, to a large extent, due to the more favorable water-water interactions in the cluster around 5-bromouracil and can therefore only be obtained by including explicit water-water interactions in the calculations.

DFT study of B-like conformations of deoxydinucleoside monophosphates containing Gua and/or Cyt and their complexes with Na+ cation.

B-like minimum energy conformations of deoxydinucleoside monophosphate anions (dDMPs) containing Gua and/or Cyt and their Na+ complexes have been studied by the DFT PW91PW91/DZVP method. The optimized geometry of the dDMPs is in close agreement with experimental observations and the obtained minimum energy conformations are consistent with purine-purine, purine-pyrimidine, and pyrimidine-purine arrangements in crystals of B-DNA duplexes. All the studied systems are characterized by pyramidalization of the amino groups, which participate in the formation of unusual hydrogen bond between the carbonyl oxygen of the second base in the dGpdC, dCpdG dDMPs, and their Na+ complexes. In all the obtained structures the bases assume a nearly parallel disposition to each other and this effect is independent on the degree of their spatial superposition. From this it is concluded that the parallel disposition of the bases in the B-like single-stranded conformations is dictated by the sugar-phosphate backbone. Correspondingly, the base-base interactions attain a secondary role in the formation of these spatial structures. The formation of a weak C6-H6...O5' hydrogen bond between cytosine and the phosphate oxygen is reported, in agreement with experimental observations.

Post Hartree-Fock studies of the canonical Watson-Crick DNA base pairs: molecular structure and the nature of stability.

Gas-phase gradient optimization was carried out on the canonical Watson-Crick DNA base pairs using the second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation method at the 6-31G(d) and 6-31G(d,p) basis sets. It is detected that full geometry optimization at the MP2 level leads to an intrinsically nonplanar propeller-twisted and buckled geometry of G-C and A-T base pairs; while HF and DFT methods predict perfect planar or almost planar geometry of the base pairs. Supposedly the nonplanarity of the pairs is caused by pyramidalization of the amino nitrogen atoms, which is underestimated by the HF and DFT methods. This justifies the importance of geometry optimization at the MP2 level for obtaining reliable prediction of the charge distribution, molecular dipole moments and geometrical structure of the base pairs. The Morokuma-Kitaura and the Reduced Variational Space methods of the decomposition for molecular HF interaction energies were used for investigation of the hydrogen bonding in the Watson-Crick base pairs. It is shown that the HF stability of the hydrogen-bonded DNA base pairs originates mainly from electrostatic interactions. At the same time, the calculated magnitude of the second order intramolecular correlation correction to the Coulomb energy showed that electron correlation reduces the contribution of the electrostatic term to the attractive interaction for the A-T and G-C base pairs. Polarization, charge transfer and dispersion interactions also make considerable contribution to the attraction energy of bases.