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Non‐watson—crick base pairs in ribonucleic acids
Author(s) -
Sundaralingam M.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
international journal of quantum chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.484
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1097-461X
pISSN - 0020-7608
DOI - 10.1002/qua.560120704
Subject(s) - molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid , nucleic acid , base pair , rna , oligonucleotide , antiparallel (mathematics) , watson , transfer rna , chemistry , nucleic acid secondary structure , dna , stereochemistry , biochemistry , physics , computer science , quantum mechanics , natural language processing , magnetic field , gene
The non‐Watson‐Crick base‐pairing interactions in tRNAs are reviewed in relation to the base types (complementary/noncomplementary), glycosyl configuration ( cis/trans ), and backbone chain direction (antiparallel/parallel). It is found that all but one of the tertiary base pairs, including one within a helix, exhibit non‐Watson‐Crick pairing schemes regardless of whether or not complementary bases are involved, thus emphasizing that complementary bases are not necessarily engaged in Watson‐Crick pairs only. It is suggested that similar non‐Watson‐Crick pairs may form a significant proportion of the tertiary interactions in other ribonucleic acids (such as ribosomal and viral RNAs) and perhaps also turn out to be important in nucleic acid‐nucleic acid and nucleic acid‐oligonucleotide interactions. The biological significance of such interactions in “information transfer” should not be underestimated.