Polyphosphate complexes linkage

Building towards models relevant for polymeric DNA and RNA, nucleotides contain a phosphate attached at the 5 or 3 position. The 5 -nucleotides are most commonly studied, for which the phosphate has a pAa 6 for the first protonation step. Unless otherwise noted, throughout this chapter nucleotide will refer to the 5 -phosphate linkage. In nucleotides, metal-phosphate coordination competes with metal-base interactions. Chelate complexes with both phosphate and base coordination can occur when sterically allowed. Thus, transition metal complexes with purine monophosphates tend to exhibit metal coordination to the base N7 position, with apparent hydrogen bonding of coordinated waters to the phosphate. By contrast, more ionic Mg" binds preferentially to the phosphate groups in nucleotide monophosphates. In di- and tri-phosphate complexes such as metal-ATP compounds, the proximity of multiple phosphates generally favors polyphosphate chelate complexes with metal ions. 

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