Principles of Nucleic Acid Structure

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xx

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2. Why Study Nucleotide and Nucleic Acid Structure?

   • Wolfram Saenger

   Pages 1-8

3. Defining Terms for the Nucleic Acids

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   Pages 9-28

4. Methods: X-Ray Crystallography, Potential Energy Calculations, and Spectroscopy

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   Pages 29-50

5. Structures and Conformational Properties of Bases, Furanose Sugars, and Phosphate Groups

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   Pages 51-104

6. Physical Properties of Nucleotides: Charge Densities, pK Values, Spectra, and Tautomerism

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   Pages 105-115

7. Forces Stabilizing Associations Between Bases: Hydrogen Bonding and Base Stacking

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   Pages 116-158

8. Modified Nucleosides and Nucleotides; Nucleoside Di- and Triphosphates; Coenzymes and Antibiotics

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   Pages 159-200

9. Metal Ion Binding to Nucleic Acids

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   Pages 201-219

10. Polymorphism of DNA versus Structural Conservatism of RNA: Classification of A-, B-, and Z-TYPe Double Helices

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    Pages 220-241

11. RNA Structure

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    Pages 242-252

12. DNA Structure

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    Pages 253-282

13. Left-Handed, Complementary Double Helices—A Heresy? The Z-DNA Family

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    Pages 283-297

14. Synthetic, Homopolymer Nucleic Acids Structures

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    Pages 298-320

15. Hypotheses and Speculations: Side-by-Side Model, Kinky DNA, and “Vertical” Double Helix

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    Pages 321-330

16. tRNA—A Treasury of Stereochemical Information

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    Pages 331-349

17. Intercalation

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    Pages 350-367

18. Water and Nucleic Acids

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    Pages 368-384

19. Protein—Nucleic Acid Interactions

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    Pages 385-431

20. Higher Organization of DNA

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    Pages 432-458

New textbooks at all levels of chemistry appear with great regularity. Some fields like basic biochemistry, organic reaction mechanisms, and chemical ther­ modynamics are well represented by many excellent texts, and new or revised editions are published sufficiently often to keep up with progress in research. However, some areas of chemistry, especially many of those taught at the grad­ uate level, suffer from a real lack of up-to-date textbooks. The most serious needs occur in fields that are rapidly changing. Textbooks in these subjects usually have to be written by scientists actually involved in the research which is advancing the field. It is not often easy to persuade such individuals to set time aside to help spread the knowledge they have accumulated. Our goal, in this series, is to pinpoint areas of chemistry where recent progress has outpaced what is covered in any available textbooks, and then seek out and persuade experts in these fields to produce relatively concise but instructive introductions to their fields. These should serve the needs of one semester or one quarter graduate courses in chemistry and biochemistry. In some cases the availability of texts in active research areas should help stimulate the creation of new courses. CHARLES R. CANTOR New York Preface This monograph is based on a review on polynucleotide structures written for a book series in 1976.

• base
• biochemistry
• bonding
• chemistry
• Coenzym
• crystal
• DNA
• hydrogen
• molecule
• mutation
• nucleic acid
• Nucleotide
• spectroscopy
• tautomer
• X-ray crystallography

• Institut für Kristallographie, Freie Universität, Federal Republic of Germany

  Wolfram Saenger

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