Isolation and characterization of the products of anoxic irradiation of d(CpGpTpA).

An improved method for separating the products of DNA oligomers irradiated in aqueous solution has been devised. Altogether 39 products were isolated from the tetramer d(CpGpTpA) X-irradiated in dilute anoxic solution. Of these, 16, including most of the major products, were identified through the use of proton nmr spectroscopy. The identified products fall into four categories: (1) base products, (2) strand scission products, (3) base modifications and (4) tandem lesion. A tandem lesion in which the methyl carbon atom of thymine is covalently linked to the guanine C8 carbon atom was produced in larger yield than any of the simple base modifications.