What Is adenine doing in photolyase?

Acocella, Angela, Jones, Garth A. and Zerbetto, Francesco (2010) What Is adenine doing in photolyase? The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 114 (11). pp. 4101-4106. ISSN 1520-5207

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Abstract

The short answer to the title question is that it acts as an electrostatic bouncer that shoves the charge flow from flavin toward the DNA lesion that photolyase repairs. This explanation is provided by an explicit time-dependent quantum mechanical approach, which is used to investigate the electron transfer process that triggers the repair mechanism. The transfer occurs from the flavin photolyase cofactor to the cyclobutane ring of DNA, previously formed by light-induced cycloaddition of adjacent pyrimidine bases. The electron wave function dynamics accurately accounts for the previously proposed mechanism of transfer via the terminal methyl group of the flavin moiety present in the catalytic electron-donor cofactor, FADH-, which also contains adenine. This latter moiety, which has often been assumed to be present mainly for structural reasons, instantaneously modifies the interaction between acceptor and donor by a variation of the electrostatic interactions so that the presence of its local atomic charges is necessary to trigger the transfer. In principle, knowledge of the details of the electron transfer dynamics and of the important role of polarization effects can be exploited to improve the efficiency of the repair mechanism in artificial systems.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Chemistry (former - to 2024)
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Chemistry of Light and Energy Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Photonics and Quantum Science
Depositing User:	Rachel Smith
Date Deposited:	23 Mar 2011 10:01
Last Modified:	24 Sep 2024 09:09
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/26949
DOI:	10.1021/jp101093z

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