Application of Multiple-pulse lH-NMR Techniques to the Study of Two Synthetic DNA Decamers

A variety of biological, biochemical, and chemical studies have demonstrated that sequence has a profound effect on the physical properties of DNA (Wells et al. 1977); some of these sequence-dependent effects are undoubtedly involved in modulating the biological function of DNA. In an attempt to answer some of the important biological questions regarding the relationship between DNA structure and function, a number of spectroscopic techniques have been used to probe the properties of DNA in solution. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is most widely used in the investigation of the structural and dynamic properties of small molecules in solution (Jackman and Cotton 1975), but until recently, NMR studies of RNA and DNA have relied almost exclusively on measurement of the standard NMR parameters of chemical shift, line width, and coupling constants. Because the structural and dynamic information that can be obtained from these conventional NMR studies is limited, in our studies...