Isolation and mass spectrometric characterization of dimeric adenine photoproducts in oligodeoxynucleotides.

UVC irradiation of oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) at 254 nm generates two types of DNA photoproducts, A=A and (AA)*, at adjacent adenine sites in DNA. Kumar et al. previously proved the structure of these adducts in dinucleoside monophosphates [Kumar, S., et al. (1987) Nucleic Acids Res. 15, 1199-1216; Kumar, S., et al. (1991) Nucleic Acids Res. 19, 2841-2847]. Product-ion spectra of ESI-produced [M - 2H](2-) ions of the ODNs containing the dimeric adenine photoproducts show distinctive fragmentation that is informative of the structures of the photoproducts. The gas-phase cleavages of ODNs at sites of those photoproducts and thymine thymine or thymine adenine ((TA)*) photoproducts are analogous to cleavages induced by hot alkaline treatment. Nuclease-P1 digestions of ODNs containing dimeric adenine photoproducts give shorter pieces of ODNs bearing the photoproducts, which fragment under collisional activation conditions in a similar way to the large ODNs containing the photoproducts. The tandem mass spectrometric results show that the yield of (AA)* is lower than that of A=A when adjacent adenines are in the middle of an ODN sequence, and the yield of the latter is similar to that of (TA)*.