Stereoelectronic Effects in Nucleosides and Nucleotides and their Structural Implications (including Appendix on literature up to 2005) Christophe Thibaudeau, Parag Acharya and Jyoti Chattopadhyaya* *To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
[email protected] F +4618554495 T +46184714577 www.boc.uu.se Department of Bioorganic Chemistry Biomedical Center, Uppsala University, Sweden 2 Christophe Thibaudeau, Parag Acharya and Jyoti Chattopadhyaya* Dept of Bioorganic Chemistry Uppsala University Biomedical Center, Box 581 S-751 23 Uppsala Dr C. Thibaudeau has completed his Ph.D in Feb, 1999 at the Dept of Bioorganic Chemistry under the supervision of Prof J. Chattopadhyaya Dr P. Acharya has completed his Ph.D in Dec, 2003 at the Dept of Bioorganic Chemistry under the supervision of Prof J. Chattopadhyaya Dr J. Chattopadhyaya is professor of Bioorganic Chemistry at the Uppsala University Use the following for citation in your reference: Uppsala University Press First Edition: 1999; Second Edition, 2005 Copyright © May, 1999 by J. Chattopadhyaya, C. Thibaudeau and P. Acharaya ISBN 91-506-1351-0 pp 166 Chattopadhyaya et al, "Stereoelectronic Effects in Nucleosides & Nucleotides and their Structural Implications", Dept of Bioorganic Chemistry, Box 581, Uppsala University, S-75123 Uppsala, Sweden, Ver 160205
[email protected] 3 The intrinsic flexibility of pentoses in natural PREFACE nucleosides and nucleotides, owing to their lower energy barrier for interconversions compared to the The three essential components of DNA and RNA are hexopyranoses, is dictated by the energetics of the aglycone, the pentofuranose sugar in β-D stereochemistry stereoelectronic effects, which simply can be tuned and the phosphodiester. The phosphates at the backbone and modulated by choice of substituents and their makes DNA/RNA to behave as polyelectrolyte, the pentose ionization state as well as by their complexation with sugar gives the intrinsic flexibility with relatively low energy potential ligands present in the medium.