Copolymers containing alternating sequences of nucleic acid base pairs. III. Spectroscopic studies

A study was conducted of the complementary base pair interactions between various pairs of electron-donor monomers, electron-acceptor monomers, homopolymers and alternating copolymers selected from the following group: ( 1 ) 9-(2-vinyloxyethyl)adenine; ( 2 ) 1-(2-vinyloxyethyl)thymine; ( 3 ) 1-(2-vinyloxyethyl)cytosine; ( 4 ) 9-(2-maleimidoethyl)adenine; ( 5 ) 6-chloro-9-(2-maleimidoethyl)purine; ( 6 ) 1-(2-maleimidoethyl)thymine; ( 7 ) 1-(2-maleimidoethyl)cytosine; ( 8 ) homopolymer of ( 4 ); ( 9 ) homopolymer of ( 6 ); ( 10 ) alternating copolymer of ( 2 ) and maleic anhydride; ( 11 ) alternating copolymer of ( 2 ) and ( 5 ); and ( 12 ) alternating copolymer of ( 2 ) and ( 4 ). By ¹H-NMR, in CDCL₃, the base pair interactions between ( 1 ) and ( 2 ) were shown to be hydrogen bonding, the extent of which was shown by a calculated binding constant, K = 61.81 L/mol. The nature of this interaction was conformed by IR. Neither monomer pairs ( 1 )/( 2 ) nor ( 4 )/( 6 ) exhibited hydrogen bonding in DMSO-d₆. However, hydrogen bonding interaction was observed for DMSO-d₆ solutions of homopolymers ( 8 ) and ( 9 ) and for alternating copolymer ( 12 ). On the basis of an upfield chemical shift of the 2- and 8-aromatic protons of ademine of ( 1 ) in D₂O, a partial overlap stacking interaction is proposed. No charge-transfer interactions could be observed by UV between donor-acceptor monomer pairs.