A study of 14N relaxation and nitrogen–proton spin coupling in Watson–Crick base pair models through Fourier transform measurements on NH proton spin–lattice relaxation in the rotating frame

Abstract

Indirect measurements of nitrogen-14 nuclear spin-lattice relaxation times and direct proton coupling constants are presented together with carbon-13 T1 data for a series of alkyl-substituted nucleic acid bases and mixtures thereof in DMSO-d6. With the exception of the guanine NH nitrogen, which possibly experiences a decrease in the electric field gradient upon complexation with cytosine, no indications of significant changes in the electronic environment around the nitrogen nuclei were found for any combination of bases. Forsen–Hoffman spin saturation transfer experiments on the NH and NH2 protons are also presented.