Nucleic acid tautomerism

These relationships are general Hydroxyl substituted purines and pyrimidines exist in their keto forms ammo substituted ones retain structures with an ammo group on the ring The pyrimidine and punne bases m DNA and RNA listed m Table 28 1 follow this general rule Beginning m Section 28 7 we 11 see how critical it is that we know the cor rect tautomeric forms of the nucleic acid bases... 

Modern concepts have been extended to the chemistry of heterocyclic compounds more slowly than to the chemistry of aromatic and aliphatic systems, but efforts are now being made to classify and explain the properties and reactions of heterocyclic compounds in terms of these newer ideas (cf. reference 11). However, many of the most important heterocyclic compounds are potentially tautomeric, and elucidation of their tautomeric composition must precede a logical treatment of their properties. Further, many natural products such as the nucleic acids and alkaloids contain potentially tautomeric groups and information of this type is needed for a detailed explanation of th reactions which they undergo,... 

Scheme 17. Importance of Tautomerism in Mispairing of Nucleic Acid Bases...

Potentially tautomeric pyrimidines and purines are /V-alkylated under two-phase conditions, using tetra-n-butylammonium bromide or Aliquat as the catalyst [75-77], Alkylation of, for example, uracil, thiamine, and cytosine yield the 1-mono-and 1,3-dialkylated derivatives [77-81]. Theobromine and other xanthines are alkylated at N1 and/or at N3, but adenine is preferentially alkylated at N9 (70-80%), with smaller amounts of the N3-alkylated derivative (20-25%), under the basic two-phase conditions [76]. These observations should be compared with the preferential alkylation at N3 under neutral conditions. The procedure is of importance in the derivatization of nucleic acids and it has been developed for the /V-alkylation of nucleosides and nucleotides using haloalkanes or trialkyl phosphates in the presence of tetra-n-butylammonium fluoride [80], Under analogous conditions, pyrimidine nucleosides are O-acylated [79]. The catalysed alkylation reactions have been extended to the glycosidation of pyrrolo[2,3-r/]pyrimidines, pyrrolo[3,2-c]pyridines, and pyrazolo[3,4-r/]pyrimidines (e.g. Scheme 5.20) [e.g. 82-88] as a route to potentially biologically active azapurine analogues. 

Since a knowledge of the correct tautomeric form of the pyrimidines is a requisite for understanding the mode of binding to active sites, as well as nucleic acid structure and modification, the formulae of the conventionally-named 2- and 4-hydroxypyrimidines are presented in the correct lactam, or pyrimidone, form in this chapter. Other physical properties of the pyrimidines, such as dissociation constants, protonation sites, and distribution coefficients, are presented in cases where there is a known relation to drug activity. Biogenesis and enzyme control mechanisms are discussed where they relate to an understanding of inhibitor action. 

The number of possible forms is reduced somewhat by the fact that one of the nitrogens is bonded to the sugar in the nucleic acid it no longer carries a hydrogen to participate in tautomerism. The tautomeric forms indicated are found to predominate in nucleic acids. The oxygen substituents exist almost entirely as carbonyl groups, whereas... 

The bases are monocyclic pyrimidines (see Box 11.5) or bicyclic purines (see Section 11.9.1), and all are aromatic. The two purine bases are adenine (A) and guanine (G), and the three pyrimidines are cytosine (C), thymine (T) and uracil (U). Uracil is found only in RNA, and thymine is found only in DNA. The other three bases are common to both DNA and RNA. The heterocyclic bases are capable of existing in more than one tautomeric form (see Sections 11.6.2 and 11.9.1). The forms shown here are found to predominate in nucleic acids. Thus, the oxygen substituents are in keto form, and the nitrogen substituents exist as amino groups. 

Reactions of uracil and structurally analogous compounds have been thoroughly studied 49, 50). Uracil (2,4-dihydroxypyrimidine), a component of the nucleic acids, can be classified as a heteroaromatic compound only with reserve, sinee the keto form dominates in the tautomeric equilibrium. 

Lee GYC, Chan SI. Tautomerism of nucleic acid bases. 11. Guanine. J Am Chem Soc 1972 94 3218-3229. 

VII. Tautomerism, Electronic Structures, and Spectra of Rare Pyrimidine Bases of the Nucleic Acids. 312... 

The understanding of the tautomeric properties of the purine and pyrimidine bases of the nucleic acids and the determination of the electronic properties of the principal tautomers are of fundamental importance in molecular biology, in particular in connection with the theory of mutations (for general references see, e.g. refs. 1-6.) B. Pullman and A. Pullman have presented recently in these Advances3 a detailed review of the problem as it concerns the purine bases. The present paper... 

In general, the problem of tautomerism in nucleic acid bases has been approached by comparing the IR spectra of several isoelectronic model compounds. The model corresponding to the cytosine tautomers 4 or 5 have not yet been investigated. The IR spectroscopy studies cannot therefore definitely rule out these tautomers. It seems, however, that they do rule out form 6 for cytosine and cytidine and indicate that the dominant tautomer of the compounds in aqueous solution is the lactam-amino form 2, and that the protonated cations have the structure 7. 

X-Ray results are available for the molecular structures of nearly all rare pyrimidine constituents of the nucleic acids except for isothiocyto-sine. Thio analogs of uracil exist in the tautomeric form of the 32 type ... 

The nucleoside formed from hypoxanthine and ribose is known as inosine (Ino or I) and the corresponding nucleotide as inosinic acid. Further substitution at C-2 of -H by -OH and tautomerization yields xanthine (Xan). Its nucleoside is xanthosine (Xao, X). A similar hydroxylation at C-7 converts xanthine to uric acid, an important human urinary excretion product derived from nucleic acid bases. 

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. 

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