Role of interaction energy in the specificity of transcription. II-The Watson Crick A-U base pair template.

In continuation with work regarding the evaluation of the energy of association of various RNA bases with various base pairs, the results of the computations of the electrostatic interaction energy of A-U base pair with four RNA bases viz. Adenine, Uracil, Guanine and Cytosine have been reported. Non bonded induced polarization and dispersion potentials are not taken into account. Electrostatic hard sphere model of Nash and Bradley has been employed. Computations have been performed to find out the minimum energy configuration out of the various possible complex configurations. Results have been discussed with reference to similar calculations with G-C base pair performed by the authors.