Proton and phosphorus‐31 magnetic relaxation studies on the interaction of polyriboadenylic acid with Mn2+

Abstract

AbstractProton and phosphorus‐31 nuclear spin–lattice relaxation times T1 and spin–spin relaxation times T2 have been measured on the single‐stranded polyriboadenylic acid [poly(A)]–Mn2+ system in a neutral D2O solution in the temperature range 10°–90°C at 100 and 40.5 MHz, respectively, with the Fourier transform nmr method. Minimum values of T1 have been found for all these nuclei, which have enabled the exact estimation of apparent distances from Mn2+ to H2, H8, H1′, and the phosphorus nucleus to be 4.7, 4.1, 5.2, and 3.0 Å, respectively. The electron spin of Mn2+ penetrates into the phosphorus nucleus, giving 31P hyperfine coupling of more than 106 Hz. Evidence of penetration of the electron spin into H8 and H2 is also obtained, suggesting direct coordination of nitrogen atoms of the adenine ring to the Mn2+ Ion. Combined with the result from proton relaxation enhancement of water, it is concluded that every Mn2+ ion added is bound directly to two phosphate groups with a Mn2+–phosphorus distance of 3.3 Å, while a part of the Mn2+ ions are simultaneouly bound to the adenine ring. It is estimated that 39 ± 13% and 13 ± 5% of Mn2+ are coordinated by N7 and N3 (or N1), respectively. The motional freedom of poly(A) in the environment of the Mn2+ binding site has been found to be quenched to the extent that the rotational motion becomes several times slower than that of the corresponding Mn2+–free poly(A). The activation energies for the molecular motion are, however, practically unchanged from those for Mn2+–free poly(A), and are found to be 8.3, 8.5, 6.1, and 8.7 kcal/mol for H8, H2, H1′, and phosphorus, respectively. T2 of phosphorus is determined by the dissociation rate (k−1) of Mn2+ from the phosphate group for the whole temperature range studied with activation enthalpy of 6.5 kcal/mol. The dissociation rates of Mn2+ from the adenine ring are also estimated from proton T2 values below 50°C.