Interaction of divalent metal cations and nucleotides: A computational study

In this study, the anionic phosphate group of nucleotides was found to be the best site to bind the divalent metal cations Be²⁺, Mg²⁺, Zn²⁺, Cd²⁺, Hg²⁺ and Pb²⁺ to form the most stable complexes. Molecular orbital calculations at the semiempirical level were performed on nucleotidemetal cation complexes to report energies of complexation reactions, geometrical parameters of complexes and charge distributions on the complexes. In the discussion, complexational preferences of divalent metal cations, the charge transfer involved in the binding of the metal cations to the phosphate anion of the nucleotides and their conformational effects are included.