Hydrogen Bonding in the Crystal Structures of the Nucleosides and Nucleotides

Abstract

All the important hydrogen-bonding functional groups which occur in biological macromolecules are found in the nucleosides and nucleotides (Box 17.1). From the point of view of hydrogen bonding, they are the most complex of the small biological molecules, since they contain the greatest variety of hydrogen-bonding functional groups. To the −NH2, \(\begin{array}{*{20}{c}} \backslash \\ / \end{array}NH\) O=C and \(\begin{array}{*{20}{c}} {\backslash \backslash } \\ / \end{array}N\) groups which are predominant in the purine and pyrimidine bases are added the −OH and \(\begin{array}{*{20}{c}} \backslash \\ / \end{array}O\) groups of the ribo- or deoxyribofuranosyl moieties, and for the nucleotides, the P−OH and \(\overline P = O\) groups of the phosphoric acid components (Box 17.2).