Interaction of Disulfide Groups With Nucleic Acid Bases

Low temperature luminescence studies have provided evidence for interactions between the disulfide group of cystamine and adenine bases in cystamine‐poly(A) complexes and in cystamine‐adenosine aggregates. A quenching of adenine phosphorescence by cystamine was observed. At room temperature complex formation between cystamine and poly(A) was followed by proton magnetic resonance, absorption spectrophotometry and fluorescence using competition with a fluorescent peptide to monitor the binding process. These base‐disulfide interactions could be involved in the photochemistry of protein‐nucleic acid complexes.