Metal nucleic acid interactions

Last but not least, we should mention that the Society of Biological Inorganic Chemistry (SBIC) was erected in 1995, and is strongly developing, not only giving attention to bioinorganic catalysis, but also to biomimetics, electron transfer, and the role of metal ions in medicine and the environment, including metal-nucleic acid interactions for details, see the website http //www.sbic-home.org/. 

The first chapter will start with a discussion of the methods being employed to elucidate the chemical and structural possibilities of metal nucleic acid interactions. This will be followed by specific reactions of some transition elements with the free bases, the nucleosides, the nucleotides and finally the polymer nucleotides. 

Why would people be interested in metal-nucleic acid interactions Perhaps because life as we know it is dependent on these interactions. Nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) are actually salts (or complexes) of metal ions from a chemical point of view. Therefore, it is difficult, if not impossible, to separate the behavior of DNA and RNA from their interactions with metal ions. We must also take into account specifically bound water molecules since they frequently mediate interactions between polynucleotides and metal ions. ... 

Metal ions are usually required to promote and stabilize functionally active or native conformations of nucleic acids, as well as to mediate nucleic acid-protein interactions. However, metal ions can also cause structural transformation of nncleic acids, or denature their native structures. In addition to structural roles, some metal compounds can indnce cleavage (i.e. scission, fragmentation, or depolymerization) and modification (withont cleavage) of nucleic acids. Metal-nucleic acid interactions can be either nonspecific or dependent on the chemical nature of nucleotide residues, nucleic acid sequence, or secondary and/or tertiary structure of nucleic acids. The specificity of these interactions is dependent... 

Table 1 Basic features of hydrated metal ions involved in metal-nucleic acid interactions...

As mentioned above, metal ions and nucleic acids are equal partners in metal-nucleic acid interactions. Surprisingly, the number of potential bonds (both inner- and outer-sphere) that... 

All of these factors dictate that great care must be exercised in relating well-defined crystal stmctures to the predominant stmctures that exist in solution. Moreover, it is important to remember that there is a wide range of microenvironments present in vivo, each of which would also be expected to affect the metal nucleic acid interactions in a fashion (superficially) analogous to a specific solvent or the absorption of the metal ions to a particular surface. ... 

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