Charge hopping in DNA.

The efficiency of charge migration through stacked Watson-Crick base pairs is analyzed for coherent hole motion interrupted by localization on guanine (G) bases. Our analysis rests on recent experiments, which demonstrate the competition of hole hopping transitions between nearest neighbor G bases and a chemical reaction of the cation G(+) with water. In addition, it has been assumed that the presence of units with several adjacent stacked G bases on the same strand leads to the additional vibronic relaxation process (G(+)G...G) --> (GG...G)(+). The latter may also compete with the hole transfer from (G(+)G...G) to a single G site, depending on the relative positions of energy levels for G(+) and (G(+)G...G). A hopping model is proposed to take the competition of these three rate steps into account. It is shown that the model includes two important limits. One corresponds to the situation where the charge relaxation inside a multiple guanine unit is faster than hopping. In this case hopping is terminated by several adjacent G bases located on the same strand, as has been observed for the GGG triple. In the opposite, slow relaxation limit the GG...G unit allows a hole to migrate further in accord with experiments on strand cleavage exploiting GG pairs. We demonstrate that for base pair sequences with only the GGG triple, the fast relaxation limit of our model yields practically the same sequence- and distance dependencies as measurements, without invoking adjustable parameters. For sequences with a certain number of repeating adenine:thymine pairs between neighboring G bases, our analysis predicts that the hole transfer efficiency varies in inverse proportion to the sequence length for short sequences, with change to slow exponential decay for longer sequences. Calculations performed within the slow relaxation limit enable us to specify parameters that provide a reasonable fit of our numerical results to the hole migration efficiency deduced from experiments with sequences containing GG pairs. The relation of the results obtained to other theoretical and experimental studies of charge transfer in DNA is discussed. We propose experiments to gain a deeper insight into complicated kinetics of charge-transfer hopping in DNA.     

Polarons in DNA: transition from guanine to adenine transport

Experiments on hole transport in DNA have been interpreted as showing that a hole introduced onto a guanine (G) followed by a series of adenines (As) in a DNA duplex travels through the first three As by tunneling and then, with thermal energy, makes the transition onto the bridge of As. It has been widely believed that, once on the bridge, the hole is localized on a single A and proceeds by hopping between As. In the experiments, the holes on the A bridge diffuse, with little attenuation, until trapped by a GGG sequence. Recently, it has been discovered by Bixon and Jortner that the model of tunneling followed by hopping between As cannot account for the very weak dependence on bridge size of the relative chemical yields and the ratios of the rates for the two processes. In earlier calculations, we have shown that interaction with water results in the hole becoming a polaron spread over approximately four As. According to these calculations, the energy of the hole on the polaron is decreased so much that it is lower than that of the hole on G and even that of GGG. Estimates of energy fluctuations, due to fluctuations in the environment and conformational changes of the DNA, find them to be large enough so that GGG, and even G, can still act as hole traps, but trapping on the former is still very much more likely because of its lower energy.     

A molecular dynamics calculations of hole transfer rates in DNA strands

A computational model, which includes both tunneling and thermal hopping mechanisms, has been applied to study the charge transfer in DNA (GC)n and (AT)n strands. The calculations revealed the crucial role played by the A or G NH2-group vibrations in the hole transfer in both types of strands. Charge-transfer rates in the two strands have been determined based on the molecular dynamics calculations. They are in good agreement with the available experimental data. The modeling approach used here may be employed in the theoretical study of the charge transfer in natural and artificial DNA strands containing AT and GC pairs.     

PNA versus DNA: effects of structural fluctuations on electronic structure and hole-transport mechanisms

The effects of structural fluctuations on charge transfer in double-stranded DNA and peptide nucleic acid (PNA) are investigated. A palindromic sequence with two guanine bases that play the roles of hole donor and acceptor, separated by a bridge of two adenine bases, was analyzed using combined molecular dynamics (MD) and quantum-chemical methods. Surprisingly, electronic structure calculations on individual MD snapshots show significant frontier orbital electronic population on the bridge in approximately 10% of the structures. Electron-density delocalization to the bridge is found to be gated by fluctuations of the covalent conjugated bond structure of the aromatic rings of the nucleic bases. It is concluded, therefore, that both thermal hopping and superexchange should contribute significantly to charge transfer even in short DNA/PNA fragments. PNA is found to be more flexible than DNA, and this flexibility is predicted to produce larger rates of charge transfer.     

Charge transport in DNA via thermally induced hopping.

In this contribution we advance and explore the thermally induced hopping (TIH) mechanism for long-range charge transport (CT) in DNA and in large-scale chemical systems. TIH occurs in donor-bridge-acceptor systems, which are characterized by off-resonance donor-bridge interactions (energy gap DeltaE > 0), involving thermally activated donor-bridge charge injection followed by intrabridge charge hopping. We observe a "transition" from superexchange to TIH with increasing the bridge length (i.e., the number N of the bridge constituents), which is manifested by crossing from the exponential N-dependent donor-acceptor CT rate at low N (< N(X)) to a weakly (algebraic) N-dependent CT rate at high N (>N(X)). The "critical" bridge size N(X) is determined by the energy gap, the nearest-neighbor electronic couplings, and the temperature. Experimental evidence for the TIH mechanism was inferred from our analysis of the chemical yields for the distal/proximal guanine (G) triplets in the (GGG)(+)TTXTT(GGG) duplex (X = G, azadine (zA), and adenine (A)) studied by Nakatani, Dohno and Saito [J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2000, 122, 5893]. The TIH sequential model, which involves hole hopping between (GGG) and X, is analyzed in terms of a sequential process in conjunction with parallel reactions of (GGG)(+) with water, and provides a scale of (free) energy gaps (relative to (GGG)(+)) of Delta = 0.21-0.24 eV for X = A, Delta = 0.10-0.14 eV for X = zA, and Delta = 0.05-0.10 eV for X = G. We further investigated the chemical yields for long-range TIH in (G)l(+)Xn(G)l (l = 1-3) duplexes, establishing the energetic constraints (i.e., the donor - bridge base (X) energy gap Delta), the bridge structural constraints (i.e., the intrabridge X-X hopping rates k(m)), and the kinetic constraints (i.e., the rate k(d) for the reaction of with water). Effective TIH is expected to prevail for Delta less than or approximately equal to 0.20 eV with a "fast" water reaction (k(d)/k(m) approximately 10(-3)) and for Delta < 0.30 eV with a "slow" water reaction (k(d)/k(m) approximately 10(-5)). We conclude that (T)n bridges (for which Delta approximately equals 0.6 eV) cannot act in TIH of holes. From an analysis based on the energetics of the electronic coupling matrix elements in G(+)(T-A)n(GGG) duplexes we conclude that the superexchange mechanism is expected to dominate for n = 1-4. For long (A)n bridges (n > or approximately equal to 4) the TIH prevails, provided that the water side reaction is slow, raising the issue of chemical control of TIH through long (A)n bridges in DNA attained by changing the solution composition.     

Reorganization energy, activation energy, and mechanism of hole transfer process in DNA: a theoretical study

The density functional calculations with aug-cc-pVDZ basis sets on cationic guanine-cytosine (GC(+)) and adenine-thymine (AT(+)) base pairs suggest that the cationic charge is almost entirely localized on the G and A units with significant changes in the N-H and N...O distances around the H-bonded area. While the calculated intramolecular reorganization energy (lambda(v)) for a GC base pair (0.75 eV) is remarkably larger than that for an isolated G base (0.49 eV), for the AT base pairs these values (0.44 and 0.40 eV) are almost the same. The gas phase activation energies (E(a)) for GC(+)GC-->GCGC(+), AT(+)AT-->ATAT(+), and GC(+)AT-->GCAT(+) hole transfer processes are 0.19, 0.11, and 0.73 eV with rate constants of 1.69 x 10(11), 3.15 x 10(11), and 4.61(0.168) s(-1), respectively, at 298 K. An alternative mechanism of hole transfer has been proposed on the basis of energy barriers.     

Temperature dependence for the rate of hole transfer in DNA: Nonadiabatic regime

The positive charge transfer in DNA is investigated, using the first principle treatment of the electron-vibrational interaction. We show that rearrangements of atoms belonging to base pairs induced by charge transfer are essentially quantum mechanical in nature. Particularly at room temperature, around half of the rearrangements occur via quantum tunneling, while the other half takes place via thermally activated transitions. This effect reduces activation energies for charge transfer between both AT and GC pairs by a factor of two compared to their classical values. These behaviors are described within small polaron theory for the non-adiabatic charge transfer and compared to the experimental data and previous theoretical studies.     

Base sequence effects on transport in DNA

Given the success of the polaron model based on solvation in accounting for the width of a hole polaron on an all-adenine (A) sequence on DNA, we extend the calculations to other sequences. We find excellent agreement with the free energy differences measured by Lewis et al. (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2000, 122, 12037-12038) between a guanine (G) cation and a pair of bases, GG, or a triple of bases, GGG, in all cases surrounded by As, by treating AGGA and AGGGA as solvated polarons. There is additional support for hole polaron formation in DNA from experiments in which oxidative damage due to injected holes is investigated in sequences involving Gs and As. Theory and comparison with transport measurements on repeated sequences involving multiple thymines (Ts) or combinations such as ATs or GCs, where C is cytosine, led to the suggestion that the basic sequences in these cases must be polarons whose wave functions have substantial amplitudes on both chains in a duplex. The size of an electron polaron in DNA is predicted to be similar to that of a hole polaron, approximately 4 or 5 bases. Although experiments have shown that polaron hopping is the dominant mode of charge transport in DNA with repeated sequences such as AGGA, further investigations, particularly of temperature dependence of site energies and transfer integrals, are needed to determine to what extent hole transport takes place by polaron hopping for arbitrary DNA sequences.     

Tunneling versus hopping in mixed-valence oligo-p-phenylenevinylene polychlorinated bis(triphenylmethyl) radical anions

Radical anions 1(-?)-5(-?), showing different lengths and incorporating up to five p-phenylenevinylene (PPV) bridges between two polychlorinated triphenylmethyl units, have been prepared by chemical or electrochemical reductions from the corresponding diradicals 1-5 which were prepared using Wittig-Horner-type chemistry. Such radical anions enabled us to study, by means of UV-vis-NIR and variable-temperature electron spin resonance spectroscopies, the long-range intramolecular electron transfer (IET) phenomena in their ground states, probing the influence of increasing the lengths of the bridges without the need of using an external bias to promote IET. The temperature dependence of the IET rate constants of mixed-valence species 1(-?)-5(-?) revealed the presence of two different regimes at low and high temperatures in which the mechanisms of electron tunneling via superexchange and thermally activated hopping are competing. Both mechanisms occur to different extents, depending on the sizes of the radical anions, since the lengths of the oligo-PPV bridges notably influence the tunneling efficiency and the activation energy barriers of the hopping processes, the barriers diminishing when the lengths are increased. The nature of solvents also modifies the IET rates by means of the interactions between the oligo-PPV bridges and the solvents. Finally, in the shortest compounds 1(-?) and 2(-?), the IET induced optically through the superexchange mechanism can also be observed by the exhibited intervalence bands, whose intensities decrease with the length of the PPV bridge.     

Estimates of electronic coupling for excess electron transfer in DNA

Electronic coupling V(da) is one of the key parameters that determine the rate of charge transfer through DNA. While there have been several computational studies of V(da) for hole transfer, estimates of electronic couplings for excess electron transfer (ET) in DNA remain unavailable. In the paper, an efficient strategy is established for calculating the ET matrix elements between base pairs in a pi stack. Two approaches are considered. First, we employ the diabatic-state (DS) method in which donor and acceptor are represented with radical anions of the canonical base pairs adenine-thymine (AT) and guanine-cytosine (GC). In this approach, similar values of V(da) are obtained with the standard 6-31G(*) and extended 6-31+ +G(**) basis sets. Second, the electronic couplings are derived from lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals (LUMOs) of neutral systems by using the generalized Mulliken-Hush or fragment charge methods. Because the radical-anion states of AT and GC are well reproduced by LUMOs of the neutral base pairs calculated without diffuse functions, the estimated values of V(da) are in good agreement with the couplings obtained for radical-anion states using the DS method. However, when the calculation of a neutral stack is carried out with diffuse functions, LUMOs of the system exhibit the dipole-bound character and cannot be used for estimating electronic couplings. Our calculations suggest that the ET matrix elements V(da) for models containing intrastrand thymine and cytosine bases are essentially larger than the couplings in complexes with interstrand pyrimidine bases. The matrix elements for excess electron transfer are found to be considerably smaller than the corresponding values for hole transfer and to be very responsive to structural changes in a DNA stack.     

A Pyrimidopyrimidine Janus‐AT Nucleoside with Improved Base‐Pairing Properties to both A and T within a DNA Duplex: The Stabilizing Effect of a Second Endocyclic Ring Nitrogen

Janus bases are heterocyclic nucleic acid base analogs that present two different faces able to simultaneously hydrogen bond to nucleosides that form Watson–Crick base pairs. The synthesis of a Janus‐AT nucleotide analogue, ^N J_AT , that has an additional endocyclic ring nitrogen and is thus more capable of efficiently discriminating T/A over G/C bases when base‐pairing in a standard duplex‐DNA context is described. Conversion to a phosphoramidite ultimately afforded incorporation into an oligonucleotide. In contrast to the first generation of carbocyclic Janus heterocycles, it remains in its unprotonated state at physiological pH and, therefore, forms very stable Watson–Crick base pairs with either A or T bases. Biophysical and computational methods indicate that ^N J_AT is an improved candidate for sequence‐specific genome targeting.     

Electronic couplings in DNA pi-stacks: multistate effects

In this study, we employ a multistate generalized Mulliken-Hush approach for calculating electronic couplings V(da) for charge transfer (CT) in DNA pi-stacks consisting of three, four, and five base pairs. In these systems the guanine donor and acceptor sites are separated by several (AT) pairs. The Hartree-Fock calculations of the stacks are carried out with the standard 6-31G basis sets. All possible superexchange pathways are accounted for. We examine electronic couplings estimated using the two-state and multistate models. Although for some systems the two-state scheme provides reasonable estimates of V(da), in general this simple model fails to reproduce the electronic couplings calculated with the multistate approach. The two-state treatment of pi-stacks with a tunneling gap less than 0.3 eV, for instance, GAAG and GAAAG, may lead to invalid estimates of V(da). We consider the dependence of V(da) on the length and composition of the bridge. The calculations show that V(da) is less sensitive to the arrangement of nucleobases in the bridge, as can be predicted on the basis of electronic couplings between adjacent base pairs.     

Neomycin-neomycin dimer: an all-carbohydrate scaffold with high affinity for AT-rich DNA duplexes

A dimeric neomycin-neomycin conjugate 3 with a flexible linker, 2,2'-(ethylenedioxy)bis(ethylamine), has been synthesized and characterized. Dimer 3 can selectively bind to AT-rich DNA duplexes with high affinity. Biophysical studies have been performed between 3 and different nucleic acids with varying base composition and conformation by using ITC (isothermal calorimetry), CD (circular dichroism), FID (fluorescent intercalator displacement), and UV (ultraviolet) thermal denaturation experiments. A few conclusions can be drawn from this study: (1) FID assay with 3 and polynucleotides demonstrates the preference of 3 toward AT-rich sequences over GC-rich sequences. (2) FID assay and UV thermal denaturation experiments show that 3 has a higher affinity for the poly(dA)·poly(dT) DNA duplex than for the poly(dA)·2poly(dT) DNA triplex. Contrary to neomycin, 3 destabilizes poly(dA)·2poly(dT) triplex but stabilizes poly(dA)·poly(dT) duplex, suggesting the major groove as the binding site. (3) UV thermal denaturation studies and ITC experiments show that 3 stabilizes continuous AT-tract DNA better than DNA duplexes with alternating AT bases. (4) CD and FID titration studies show a DNA binding site size of 10-12 base pairs/drug, depending upon the structure/sequence of the duplex for AT-rich DNA duplexes. (5) FID and ITC titration between 3 and an intramolecular DNA duplex [d(5'-A(12)-x-T(12)-3'), x = hexaethylene glycol linker] results in a binding stoichiometry of 1:1 with a binding constant ～10(8) M(-1) at 100 mM KCl. (6) FID assay using 3 and 512 hairpin DNA sequences that vary in their AT base content and placement also show a higher binding selectivity of 3 toward continuous AT-rich than toward DNA duplexes with alternate AT base pairs. (7) Salt-dependent studies indicate the formation of three ion pairs during binding of the DNA duplex d[5'-A(12)-x-T(12)-3'] and 3. (8) ITC-derived binding constants between 3 and DNA duplexes have the following order: AT continuous, d[5'-G(3)A(5)T(5)C(3)-3'] > AT alternate, d[5'-G(3)(AT)(5)C(3)-3'] > GC-rich d[5'-A(3)G(5)C(5)T(3)-3']. (9) 3 binds to the AT-tract-containing DNA duplex (B* DNA, d[5'-G(3)A(5)T(5)C(3)-3']) with 1 order of magnitude higher affinity than to a DNA duplex with alternating AT base pairs (B DNA, d[5'-G(3)(AT)(5)C(3)-3']) and with almost 3 orders of magnitude higher affinity than a GC-rich DNA (A-form, d[5'-A(3)G(5)C(5)T(3)-3']).     

NMR imino proton exchange experiments on duplex DNA primarily monitor the opening of purine bases

Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to investigate GC and AT base opening events in DNA. Calculated equilibrium constants between the base open (or flipped) and closed states were shown to be in good agreement with experimental data from NMR imino proton exchange experiments. Analysis of the computed results indicates that the equilbrium constants are dominated by the opening of the A and G bases in the AT and GC base pairs, respectively. Thus, the present results predict that NMR imino proton exchange experiments of base opening are primarily monitoring the opening of purine bases.     

碱基对在DNA双螺旋链上分离的自由能计算

DNA是大部分生物包括病毒的基因载体。DNA双螺旋链通过A＝T和G≡C两种碱基对编码实现对遗传信息的存储。碱基对中的相互作用对DNA双螺旋链的稳定性起到重要作用,直接关系到基因的复制和转录。当前研究中,我们构建了四组不同结构的DNA双螺旋链,进行了总共4.3 μs的分子动力学模拟。通过伞形取样技术计算了DNA双螺旋链中碱基对分离的自由能曲线,并从分子尺度细节和相互作用能对自由能曲线进行解析。在碱基对G≡C的自由能曲线(PMF-PGC)上观察到三个峰,通过监测氢键数目的变化发现分别对应于G≡C三个氢键的断裂;而在A＝T的自由能曲线(PMF-PAT)上只出现一个峰,说明A＝T的两个氢键在分离过程中几乎同时断裂。PMF-PGC的总能垒比PMF-PAT高,主要是因为G≡C比A＝T多一个氢键,更稳定。两条曲线的后段自由能仍然升高,而此时碱基对的氢键已断裂,这是DNA链骨架刚性所导致。我们还研究了碱基对稳定性受相邻碱基对的影响,发现邻近G≡C碱基对会增强A＝T的稳定性, C≡G会削弱A＝T的稳定性, T＝A对A＝T的影响较小。     

Charge-transfer and spin dynamics in DNA hairpin conjugates with perylenediimide as a base-pair surrogate

A perylenediimide chromophore (P) was incorporated into DNA hairpins as a base-pair surrogate to prevent the self-aggregation of P that is typical when it is used as the hairpin linker. The photoinduced charge-transfer and spin dynamics of these hairpins were studied using femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy and time-resolved EPR spectroscopy (TREPR). P is a photooxidant that is sufficiently powerful to quantitatively inject holes into adjacent adenine (A) and guanine (G) nucleobases. The charge-transfer dynamics observed following hole injection from P into the A-tract of the DNA hairpins is consistent with formation of a polaron involving an estimated 3-4 A bases. Trapping of the (A 3-4) (+*) polaron by a G base at the opposite end of the A-tract from P is competitive with charge recombination of the polaron and P (-*) only at short P-G distances. In a hairpin having 3 A-T base pairs between P and G ( 4G), the radical ion pair that results from trapping of the hole by G is spin-correlated and displays TREPR spectra at 295 and 85 K that are consistent with its formation from (1*)P by the radical-pair intersystem crossing mechanism. Charge recombination is spin-selective and produces (3*)P, which at 85 K exhibits a spin-polarized TREPR spectrum that is diagnostic of its origin from the spin-correlated radical ion pair. Interestingly, in a hairpin having no G bases ( 0G), TREPR spectra at 85 K revealed a spin-correlated radical pair with a dipolar interaction identical to that of 4G, implying that the A-base in the fourth A-T base pair away from the P chromophore serves as a hole trap. Our data suggest that hole injection and transport in these hairpins is completely dominated by polaron generation and movement to a trap site rather than by superexchange. On the other hand, the barrier for charge injection from G (+*) back onto the A-T base pairs is strongly activated, so charge recombination from G (or even A trap sites at 85 K) most likely proceeds by a superexchange mechanism.     

Effect of loop distortion on the stability and structural dynamics of DNA hairpin and dumbbell conjugates

The thermal stability and conformational dynamics of DNA hairpin and dumbbell conjugates having short A-tract base pair domains connected by tri- or hexa(ethylene glycol) linkers is reported. The formation of stable base-paired A-tract hairpins having oligo(ethylene glycol) linkers requires a minimum of four or five A-T base pairs. The formation of base-paired dumbbells having oligo(ethylene glycol) linkers by means of chemical ligation of nicked dumbbells requires a minimum of two A-T base pairs on either side of the nick. Molecular modeling indicates that the hexa(ethylene glycol) linker is sufficiently long to permit formation of strain-free loop regions and B-DNA base pair domains. In contrast, the tri(ethylene glycol) is too short to permit Watson-Crick base pairing between the bases attached to the linker. The shorter linker distorts the duplex, resulting in fluxional behavior in which the base pairs adjacent to the linker and at the open end of the hairpin dissociate on the nanosecond time scale. The loss of interstrand binding energy caused by these fluctuations leads to a difference of approximately 5 degrees C in melting temperature between EG3 and EG6 hairpins. An analysis of the fluxional behavior of the EG3 adjacent base-pair has been used to study the pathways for base flipping and base stacking, including the identification of rotated base (partially flipped) intermediates that have not been described previously for A-T base pairs.     

Double-proton transfer in adenine-thymine and guanine-cytosine base pairs. A post-Hartree-Fock ab initio study

The results of a comprehensive study on the double-proton transfer in Adenine-Thymine (AT) and Guanine-Cytosine (GC) base pairs at room temperature in gas phase and with the inclusion of environmental effects are obtained. The double-proton-transfer process has been investigated in the AT and GC base pairs at the B3LYP/6-31G(d) and MP2/6-31G(d) levels of theory. It has been predicted that the hydrogen-bonded bases possess nonplanar geometries due to sp3 hybridization of nitrogen atoms and because of the soft intermolecular vibrations in the molecular complexes. An analysis of the energetic parameters of the local minima suggests that rare AT base pair conformation is not populated due to the shallowness of this minimum, which completely disappears from the Gibbs free energy surface. The stabilization of canonic or rare forms of the DNA bases by water molecules and metal cations has been predicted by calculating the optimal configuration of charges (using differential product/transition state stabilization approach) followed by calculations of the interactions between the base pair and a water/sodium cation.