The chemical and enzymatic syntheses of specifically deuterated dinucleoside monophosphates

Proton magnetic resonance (pmr) studies of nucleic acid structure are currently hampered by extensive overlapping of signals, particularly in the ribose region. An approach with considerable promise involves the preparation of oligomers with specifically deuterated nucleotidyl units at known positions. In this publication, we report the synthesis of five dinucleoside monophosphates in which the 3′‐nucleotidyl unit is deuterated. These compounds were prepared by standard chemical procedures and an enzymatic approach using ribonuclease T1. The deuterated dimers give pmr spectra which are much simpler than their protio analogs, thus permitting unambiguous peak assigments.