Hydrolytic Glycosidic Bond Cleavage in RNA Nucleosides: Effects of the 2'-Hydroxy Group and Acid-Base Catalysis

Despite the inherent stability of glycosidic linkages in nucleic acids that connect the nucleobases to sugar-phosphate backbones, cleavage of these bonds is often essential for organism survival. The current study uses DFT (B3LYP) to provide a fundamental understanding of the hydrolytic deglycosylation of the natural RNA nucleosides (A, C, G, and U), offers a comparison to DNA hydrolysis, and examines the effects of acid, base, or simultaneous acid-base catalysis on RNA deglycosylation. By initially examining HCOO^-···H₂O mediated deglycosylation, the barriers for RNA hydrolysis were determined to be 30-38 kJ mol^-1 higher than the corresponding DNA barriers, indicating that the 2'-OH group stabilizes the glycosidic bond. Although the presence of HCOO^- as the base (i.e., to activate the water nucleophile) reduces the barrier for uncatalyzed RNA hydrolysis (i.e., unactivated H₂O nucleophile) by ∼15-20 kJ mol^-1, the extreme of base catalysis as modeled using a fully deprotonated water molecule (i.e., OH^- nucleophile) decreases the uncatalyzed barriers by up to 65 kJ mol^-1. Acid catalysis was subsequently examined by selectively protonating the hydrogen-bond acceptor sites of the RNA nucleobases, which results in an up to ∼80 kJ mol^-1 barrier reduction relative to the corresponding uncatalyzed pathway. Interestingly, the nucleobase proton acceptor sites that result in the greatest barrier reductions match sites typically targeted in enzyme-catalyzed reactions. Nevertheless, simultaneous acid and base catalysis is the most beneficial way to enhance the reactivity of the glycosidic bonds in RNA, with the individual effects of each catalytic approach being weakened, additive, or synergistic depending on the strength of the base (i.e., degree of water nucleophile activation), the nucleobase, and the hydrogen-bonding acceptor site on the nucleobase. Together, the current contribution provides a greater understanding of the reactivity of the glycosidic bond in natural RNA nucleosides, and has fundamental implications for the function of RNA-targeting enzymes.

Mechanisms and energetics for N-glycosidic bond cleavage of protonated 2'-deoxyguanosine and guanosine

Experimental and theoretical investigations suggest that hydrolysis of N-glycosidic bonds generally involves a concerted SN2 or a stepwise SN1 mechanism. While theoretical investigations have provided estimates for the intrinsic activation energies associated with N-glycosidic bond cleavage reactions, experimental measurements to validate the theoretical studies remain elusive. Here we report experimental investigations for N-glycosidic bond cleavage of the protonated guanine nucleosides, [dGuo+H](+) and [Guo+H](+), using threshold collision-induced dissociation (TCID) techniques. Two major dissociation pathways involving N-glycosidic bond cleavage, resulting in production of protonated guanine or the elimination of neutral guanine are observed in competition for both [dGuo+H](+) and [Guo+H](+). The detailed mechanistic pathways for the N-glycosidic bond cleavage reactions observed are mapped via electronic structure calculations. Excellent agreement between the measured and B3LYP calculated activation energies and reaction enthalpies for N-glycosidic bond cleavage of [dGuo+H](+) and [Guo+H](+) in the gas phase is found indicating that these dissociation pathways involve stepwise E1 mechanisms in analogy to the SN1 mechanisms that occur in the condensed phase. In contrast, MP2 is found to significantly overestimate the activation energies and slightly overestimate the reaction enthalpies. The 2'-hydroxyl substituent is found to stabilize the N-glycosidic bond such that [Guo+H](+) requires ∼25 kJ mol(-1) more than [dGuo+H](+) to activate the glycosidic bond.

Mechanisms and energetics for N-glycosidic bond cleavage of protonated adenine nucleosides: N3 protonation induces base rotation and enhances N-glycosidic bond stability

N3 protonation induces base rotation and stabilizes the syn orientation of the adenine nucleobase of [dAdo+H]⁺ and [Ado+H]⁺via formation of a strong intramolecular N3H⁺⋯O5′ hydrogen-bonding interaction, which in turn influences the mechanisms and energetics for N-glycosidic bond cleavage.

Nucleic acid bases in anionic 2'-deoxyribonucleotides: a DFT/B3LYP study of structures, relative stability, and proton affinities

Protonation of nucleobases in anions of canonical 2'-deoxyribonucleotides has been investigated by the DFT computational study at the B3LYP/aug-cc-pvdz level of theory. It is demonstrated that the protonation leads to a significant decrease of conformational space of purine nucleotides while almost all conformers found for non-protonated molecules correspond to minima of the potential energy surface for protonated mdTMP and mdCMP. However, in all nucleotides, only one conformer is populated. This applies to all tautomers of protonated molecules except the mdTMP and mdCMP with the proton attached to the carbonyl group where a minor population of second conformer is observed. Protonation of nucleobase leads to significant elongation of the N-glycosidic bond. These findings agree well with suggestions that protonation of nucleobase is a first step in cleavage of the glycosidic bond. The oxygen atoms of both carbonyl groups of thymine and the N3 atom of the pyrimidine ring of cytosine, guanine, and adenine represent the most preferable sites for protonation of anions of 2'-deoxyrobonucleotides. The highest proton affinity is observed for the base in mdGMP and the lowest for the thymine moiety in mdTMP. It should be noted that calculated values of the proton affinities in anionic nucleotides are significantly higher (by 2-3 eV) than for nucleosides and neutral nucleotides. This allows assuming that the proton affinity of the base in DNA macromolecule may be tuned by changing the extent of shielding or neutralization of negative charge of the phosphate group.

Glycosidic bond cleavage in deoxynucleotides: effects of solvent and the DNA phosphate backbone in the computational model

Density functional theory (B3LYP) was employed to examine the hydrolysis of the canonical 2'-deoxynucleotides in varied environments (gas phase or water) using different computational models for the sugar residue (methyl or phosphate group at C5') and nucleophile (water activated through full or partial proton abstraction). Regardless of the degree of nucleophile activation, our results show that key geometrical parameters along the reaction pathway are notably altered upon direct inclusion of solvent effects in the optimization routine, which leads to significant changes in the reaction energetics and better agreement with experiment. Therefore, despite the wide use of gas-phase calculations in the literature, small model computational work, as well as large-scale enzyme models, that strive to understand nucleotide deglycosylation must adequately describe the environment. Alternatively, although inclusion of the phosphate group at C5' also affects the geometries of important stationary points, the effects cancel to yield unchanged deglycosylation barriers, and therefore smaller computational models can be used to estimate the energy associated with nucleotide deglycosylation, with the 5' phosphate group included if full (geometric) details of the reaction are desired. Hydrogen-bonding interactions with the nucleobase can significantly reduce the barrier to deglycosylation, which supports suggestions that discrete hydrogen-bonding interactions with active-site amino acid residues can play a significant role in enzyme-catalyzed nucleobase excision. Taken together with previous studies, the present work provides vital clues about the components that must be included in future studies of the deglycosylation of isolated noncanonical nucleotides, as well as the corresponding enzyme-catalyzed reactions.