Optical Rotatory Dispersion and Circular Dichroism of Nucleic Acids

Abstract

Optical Rotatory Dispersion and Circular Dichroism of Nucleic Acids11This work was supported by grunts from the United States Public Health Service (GM-K3-3441, GM-10880, and HE-06285) This chapter discusses the optical rotatory dispersion (ORD) and circular dichroism (CD) of nucleic acids. It discusses the principles of ORD and CD. It presents the optical activity of mononucleosides and mononucleotides, which are in a class by themselves, and discusses the similarities between ORD and CD between oligonucleotides and polynucleotides and the differences between DNA and RNA. The ORD and CD of dinucleoside phosphates and trinucleoside diphosphates are sequence-dependent; the positions of the extremes and their magnitudes vary among the isomers, even though the general spectra are very similar. Thus, optical activity can become a new means for determining the base sequence in oligonucleotides.