Influence of the 2'-hydroxyl group and of 6-N-methylation on the conformation of adenine dinucleoside monophosphates in solution. A nuclear magnetic resonance and circular dichroism study.

Proton NMR studies at 360 MHz are reported on the adenine dinucleoside monophosphates N6-dimethyladenyly(3'-5')-N6-dimethyladenosine (m(6)(2)Apm(6)(2)A), ApA, rApdA, dAprA and on the methyl phosphate esters of the monomers m(6)(2)Ap, pm(6)(2)A, Ap and pA. Complete 1H-NMR spectral assignments are given. The dimers were also investigated by means of circular dichroism to obtain accurate thermodynamic parameters of the stacking equilibrium. With the aid of the thermodynamic data NMR coupling constants are extrapolated to values appropriate to the stacked conformers. A modernized version of pseudorotation analysis is used to delineate the conformational behaviour of the ribose and 2'-deoxyribose rings. It is shown that the unmethylated dimers can be arranged in two groups (dApdA/dAprA vs ApA/rApdA) according to their melting temperatures. ApA and the fully N6-methylated dimer m(6)(2)Apm(6)(2)A prefer to adopt the classical right-handed N-N stacked conformation. Both dimers with a 2'-deoxyribose ring at the 5'-OH end (dApdA and dAprA) behave similarly and occur in solution as a 75:25 mixture of S-S and S-N stacked states. The fully stacked hybrid dimer rApdA displays an unexpectedly large amount of S conformers (greater than 40%) in both sugar rings. This finding is rationalized by the postulation of a right-handed helical S-S stacked state on the basis of NMR and circular dichroic data.