title: The study of the stability of Watson-Crick nucleic acid base pairs in water and dimethyl sulfoxide: computer simulation by the Monte Carlo method.
abstract: An extensive computer simulation of nucleic acid bases and Watson-Crick base pairs in a water cluster and DMSO cluster is performed by the Monte Carlo method. It is demonstrated that the unfavorable energetics of pair formation in a water cluster is determined by the significant destabilizing contribution of solvent to the energy of complex formation. It is shown that the formation of coplanar base pairs in a DMSO cluster is favorable. The DMSO cluster stabilizes A-U and A-T base pairs and the insignificant destabilization of the G-C base pair by a DMSO cluster is much less than the stabilization which occurs due to the attraction between bases.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine.
authors.forename: V I
authors.initials: VI
authors.lastname: Danilov
authors.forename: N V
authors.initials: NV
authors.lastname: Zheltovsky
authors.forename: O N
authors.initials: ON
authors.lastname: Slyusarchuk
authors.forename: V I
authors.initials: VI
authors.lastname: Poltev
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Alderfer
mesh_terms: D001482:Base Composition; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004121:Dimethyl Sulfoxide; D006860:Hydrogen Bonding; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D009696:Nucleic Acids / Q000737:chemistry*; D012995:Solubility; D013816:Thermodynamics; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D009696:Nucleic Acids; D014867:Water; D004121:Dimethyl Sulfoxide