Abstract
The flexible five-membered sugar ring plays a pivotal role in nucleic acid structure and dynamic behavior. Structural differences between A-, B-, and Z-type duplexes are intimately correlated with specific conformational ranges of individual (deoxy)-riboses. Moreover, within the B-DNA family at least, each sugar responds to its surroundings (e.g., the basestacking pattern) by an appropriate adaptation of its geometry. For this reason, it is highly desirable to obtain a maximum of detailed quantitative information on the “atomic” level for each individual sugar in a DNA chain with the aid of existing experimental techniques. The chapter provides information content embodied in sets of vicinal 1 H– 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) coupling constants. The complete conformational analysis of a given interconverting furanose in the ideal case involves the determination of five independent parameters: P s , Ф s , P N , Ф N , and X s . This is done by the creation of a simultaneous and consistent fit of a set of experimental coupling constants for predicted values with the aid of a graphical method or a computer least squares fit.
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