Nucleic acid bases shifts tensors

Tab. 6.2 Calculated principle values nucleic acid bases and base pairs and orientations of chemical shift tensors of the imino nitrogens in...

This paper presents quantum mechanical studies of the, 5N and, 3C chemical shifts in both the N7-H and N9-H tautomeric forms of purine. Quantum mechanical calculations of the chemical shifts were used to assign the NMR resonances and the spatial orientation of the principal axes of the chemical shift tensors. Calculations in purine and in a pyridine-methanol complex model provide insights on the importance of the intermolecular interactions on the chemical shifts of the nucleic acid bases. 

The study of nucleic acid bases by NMR has been reported in a number of monographs (/), but very little data is available on the, 3C and, 5N NMR chemical shift tensors in these compounds. The low sensitivity of NMR spectroscopy and the long relaxation times exhibited by many of these compounds have posed the main impediments for these studies. The use of sample doping with free radical relaxation reagents, to reduce the relaxation times facilitating 2D multiple pulse experiment (2, 3), enables one to measure and analyze the principal values of the chemical shift tensors in natural abundance samples. In previous papers from this laboratory we have presented, 5N NMR chemical shift principal values for adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine and uracil (4, 5). 

The 15N chemical shift tensors in purine are similar to those in other nucleic acid bases for similar types of nitrogens. Comparison of the calculated values in purine for the isolated molecule and for the molecule with its nearest neighbors shows well defined trends, which could be rationalized using the results in the model pyridine-methanol complex. 

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