Molecular orbital study on the effect of the binding of water to base pair

The solvation, partitioning, hydrogen bonding, and dimerization of nucleotide bases: a multifaceted challenge for quantum chemistry

We present M06-2X density functional calculations of the chloroform/water partition coefficients of cytosine, thymine, uracil, adenine, and guanine and calculations of the free energies of association of selected unsubstituted and alkylated nucleotide base pairs in chloroform and water. Both hydrogen bonding and π-π stacking interactions are considered. Solvation effects are treated using the continuum solvent models SM8, SM8AD, and SMD, including geometry optimization in solution. Comparison of theoretical results with available experimental data indicates that all three of these solvation models predict the chloroform-water partition coefficients for the studied nucleobases qualitatively well, with mean unsigned errors in the range of 0.4-1.3 log units. All three models correctly predict the preference for hydrogen bonding over stacking for nucleobase pairs solvated in chloroform, and SM8, SM8AD, and SMD show similar accuracy in predicting the corresponding free energies of association. The agreement between theory and experiment for the association free energies of the dimers in water is more difficult to assess, as the relevant experimental data are indirect. Theory predicts that the stacking interaction of nucleobases in water is more favorable than hydrogen bonding for only two out of three tested hetero-dimers.

Characterizing radiation-induced oxidation of DNA by way of the monohydrated guanine-cytosine radical cation

The interaction of one water molecule with the guanine-cytosine radical cation has been studied with ab initio and density functional methods in order to help elucidate the nature of oxidized aqueous DNA. The theoretical spin density of [GC]*(+) reveals that the radical center is localized on guanine. The adiabatic ionization potential lowers from 7.63 to 6.71 eV in concurrence with the formation of the Watson-Crick base pair and hydration by one water molecule. A natural bond orbital analysis of partial charges shows that approximately 80% of the positive charge persists on guanine upon hydration and formation of the Watson-Crick base pair with cytosine. Hydration energies were computed with second-order Z-averaged perturbation theory (ZAPT2) using the aug-cc-pVDZ basis set at 11 stationary points on the B3LYP/DZP++ potential energy surface. The hydration energy at the global minimum is 14.2 kcal mol(-1). The lowest energy structures correspond to hydration near the glycosidic bond sites. Structural changes in the Watson-Crick base pair are predominantly seen for monohydration in the groove regions of double-helix DNA.