Double proton transfer mechanism in the adenine-uracil base pair and spontaneous mutation in RNA duplex

José P. Cerón-Carrasco, Alberto Requena, Eric A. Perpète, Catherine Michaux, Denis Jacquemin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We study the mechanism of double proton transfer (DPT) in the adenine-uracil (AU) base pair, both in gas phase and under the influence of surrounding water molecules. According to our ab initio calculations, no stable proton transfer product exists in gas phase, while in solution, the DPT process may occur only through the catalysis of water molecules. Nevertheless, a thermodynamic analysis confirms that AU does not contribute to spontaneous mutation in RNA duplex, and thus guanine-cytosine (GC) would be the only base pair contributing to spontaneous mutation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)64-68
Number of pages5
JournalChemical Physics Letters
Volume484
Issue number1-3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 8 Dec 2009

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