NMR Study on Thermal Stability of the Double Helical Structures of d(CGAATTCG)2, d(CGTATACG)2 and their berenil complexes

We prepared two oligonucleotides containing same base pairing, but different base sequence in the middle region, d(CGAATTCG) and d(CGTATACG). NMR and UV absorbance data represented that such variation in base sequence could cause a significant difference in melting temperature and dynamics between d(CGAATTCG)$_2$ and d(CGTATACG)$_2$ duplexes, which are regarded to be associated with the stacked structure and the width of the minor groove of them. The latter showed poor stability compared to the former, because of poor stacking of bases. And berenil could bind to the minor groove of d(CGAATTCG)$_2$ which is relatively narrow, more strongly than d(CGTATACG)$_2$ and this gave rise to large improvement in thermal stability of the d(CGAATTCG)$_2$ duplex, compared to d(CGTATACG)$_2$.