Calculation and analysis of vibrational spectra of adenine–thymine, guanine–cytosine, and adenine–uracil complementary pairs in the condensed state

Abstract

We have calculated the frequencies of the normal vibrations of the complementary nucleic acid base pairs adenine–thymine, guanine–cytosine, adenine–uracil, corresponding to the Watson–Crick structure, and the adenine–uracil pair, corresponding to the Hoogsteen structure, in condensed states and we interpret the spectra. We determine the contributions of hydrogen bonds to the vibrational modes of the complementary pairs. We have analyzed the nature of the relative displacements of the nucleic acid bases as integral molecular units along the hydrogen bonds. We show the role of hydrogen bonds in tautomeric interconversions of complementary nucleic acid base pairs.