The Effect Of Sulfur Substitution On The Excited-state Dynamics Of Dna And Rna Base Derivatives

Pollum, Marvin

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/51133 Copy

Description

Title

The Effect Of Sulfur Substitution On The Excited-state Dynamics Of Dna And Rna Base Derivatives

Author(s)

Pollum, Marvin

Contributor(s)

Crespo-Hernández, Carlos E.

Issue Date

2014-06-17

Keyword(s)

Mini-symposium: Spectroscopy in Kinetics and Dynamics

Abstract

Substitution of oxygen by a sulfur atom in the natural DNA and RNA bases gives rise to a family of derivatives commonly known as the thiobases. Upon excitation with UV radiation, the natural bases are able to quickly and efficiently dissipate the imparted energy as heat to their surroundings. Thiobases, on the other hand, relax into a long-lived triplet excited state in quantum yields that approach unity. This finding has both fundamental and biological relevance because the triplet state plays a foremost role in the photochemistry of the thiobases, this is especially important in the current medicinal applications of thiobase derivatives. Using femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy, we are able uncover the ultrafast dynamics leading to the population of this reactive triplet state. In particular, I will present our results on how the site of sulfur substitution and the degree of substitution impact these dynamics and I will compare these experimental results to some recent computational work. Pinning down the excited-state dynamics of the thiobases is important to furthering the understanding of dynamics in natural DNA/RNA bases, as well as to the discovery of thiobase derivatives with desirable therapeutic properties. The authors acknowledge the CAREER program of the National Science Foundation (Grant No. CHE-1255084) for financial support.

Publisher

International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy

Type of Resource

text

Language

English

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/51133

DOI

https://doi.org/10.15278/isms.2014.TH12

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2014 by the authors. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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