Premium
Beyond nucleic acid base pairs: From triads to heptads
Author(s) -
Sühnel Jürgen
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
biopolymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.556
H-Index - 125
eISSN - 1097-0282
pISSN - 0006-3525
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0282(2001)61:1<32::aid-bip10063>3.0.co;2-b
Subject(s) - nucleic acid , chemistry , stacking , base pair , nucleic acid structure , base (topology) , hydrogen bond , nucleic acid analogue , nucleobase , crystallography , stereochemistry , dna , molecule , rna , nucleic acid thermodynamics , biochemistry , base sequence , organic chemistry , mathematics , mathematical analysis , gene
Hydrogen‐bonded base pairs are an important determinant of nucleic acid structure and function. However, other interactions such as base–base stacking, base–backbone, and backbone–backbone interactions as well as effects exerted by the solvent and by metal or NH + 4ions also have to be taken into account. In addition, hydrogen‐bonded base complexes involving more than two bases can occur. With the rapidly increasing number and structural diversity of nucleic acid structures known at atomic detail higher‐order hydrogen‐bonded base complexes, base polyads, have attracted much interest. This review provides an overview on the occurrence of base polyads in nucleic acid structures and describes computational studies on these nucleic acid building blocks. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopoly (Nucleic Acid Sci) 61: 32–51, 2002; DOI 10.1002/bip.10063