Principles of Nucleic Acid Structure
198th Edition
Published on 31. December 1984
Book
Paperback/Softback
556 pages
978-3-540-90761-9 (ISBN)
Description
This is an exploration of the labyrinth of DNA and RNA structural studies. Saenger deals with all the fundamental business of conformational nomenclature and crystallographic esoterica. He explores the many structural hypotheses, but does not confuse these with experimentally well-founded models.
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Content
Why study nucleotide and nucleic acid structure? - defining terms for the nucleic acids; methods - x-ray crystallography, potential energy calculations, and spectroscopy; physical properties of nucleotides - charge densities, pK values, spectra, and tautomerism; forces stabilizing associations between bases - hydrogen bonding and base stacking; metal ion binding to nucleic acids; polymorphism of DNA versus structural conservatism of RNA - classification of A-, B-, and Z-type double helices; RNA structure; DNA structure; synthetic, homopolymer nucleic acids structures; hypotheses and speculations - side-by-side model, kinky DNA, and "vertical" double helix; tRNA - a treasury of stereochemical information; intercalation; protein-nucleic acid interaction. (Part contents)