Aromatic-sugar interaction

M. D. Diaz, M. C. Fernandez-Alonso, G. Cuevas, F. J. Canada and J. Jimenez-Barbero, On the Role of Aromatic-Sugar Interactions in the Molecular Recognition of Carbohydrates A 3D View by Using NMR , Pure Appl. Chem., 2008, 80, 1827. 

J. Screen, E. C. Stanca-Kaposta, D. P. Gamblin, B. Liu, N. A. Macleod, L. C. Snoek, B. G. Davis, and J. P. Simons, IR-spectral signatures of aromatic-sugar complexes Probing carbohydrate-protein interactions, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 46 (2007) 3644-3648. 

Root exudates A wide variety of chemicals, such as sugars, amino acids, and aromatics, is excreted by roots of plants. Very little information is available on the allelopathic interaction of root exudates with the higher plants, except for the identification of a few products in isolated cases (46). 

Extended solid state n systems facilitate CT, particularly when doped [4-6]. The analogy between DNA and conductive solid state -stacks therefore establishes that a requisite condition for CT may exist in DNA. DNA contains an array of heterocyclic aromatic base pairs, stacked at a distance of 3.4 A, wrapped within a negatively charged sugar phosphate backbone [7] (Fig. 1). The interactions between the n electrons of the DNA base pairs provide the electronic coupling necessary for CT to occur. 

Fig. 1 The w-stack of double helical DNA. In this idealized model of B-DNA the stack of heterocyclic aromatic base pairs is distinctly visible within the sugar-phosphate backbone (schematized by ribbons) a view perpendicular to the helical axis b view down the helical axis. It is the stacking of aromatic DNA bases, approximately 3.4 A apart, that imparts the DNA with its unique ability to mediate charge transport. Base stacking interactions, and DNA charge transport, are exquisitely sensitive to the sequence-depen-dent structure and flexibility of DNA...

---