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Quantum molecular study of the Z access for the phosphodiester linkage in nucleic acids
Author(s) -
Broch H.,
Viani R.,
Grassi H.,
Vasilescu D.
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.560360713
Subject(s) - phosphodiester bond , dna , chemistry , crystallography , nucleic acid , stereochemistry , molecule , biochemistry , rna , gene , organic chemistry
As emphasized by principal investigators on Z‐DNA structures, “on the basis of crystallographic analyses, it can be inferred that left‐handed double‐helical Z‐DNA molecules can exist as a family of structures with varying conformations of phosphate groups in the sugar phosphate backbone.” The aim of this paper is to explore the Z access for the phosphodiester linkage in DNAs using quantum mechanical computations on a disugar triphosphate model. The core of this study is based on the influence of the rotation around the exocyclic bond situated between the two sugars. One of our principal results is that the Z II ‐DNA structure is energetically preferred to the Z I one.