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Effect of O(2′)‐methylation on the stability of polynucleotide helices
Author(s) -
Yathindra N.,
Sundaralingam M.
Publication year - 1979
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/bip.1979.360181106
Subject(s) - polynucleotide , chemistry , phosphodiester bond , methylation , ribose , stereochemistry , melting temperature , crystallography , dna , biochemistry , rna , materials science , composite material , gene , enzyme
The effect of ribose(O2′)‐methylation on the stability of (O2′)‐methylated polyribonucleotide helices has been studied by conformational energy calculations. The preferred orientation of the methyl group is found to further stabilize the helical phosphodiester conformation ( g − , g − ) due to the enhanced short‐range interactions arising between the methyl groups and the adjacent ribose moieties. The experimentally observed increase in melting temperature of (O2′)‐alkylated polyribonucleotides is thus attributable to the enhanced stability of the helical backbone conformation.