Determination of solution conformation of DNA backbone: application of homonuclear (J, delta) spectroscopy.

Homonuclear two-dimensional (J, delta) proton spectroscopy has been suggested as a method for the measurement of 1H-31P coupling constants in oligonucleotides. The technique has been applied to a dinucleoside monophosphate G2'p5'C and a deoxydecanucleotide d(ACATCGATGT). PCILO energy calculations have been carried out to find minimum energy conformations with respect to the DNA backbone torsion angle epsilon, and these have been considered for the interpretation of the observed H3'-31P coupling constants in oligonucleotides.