Are adenine strands helical H-aggregates?

• Main Authors: Hu, Lihong, Zhao, Yang, Wang, Fan, Chen, Guan Hua, Ma, Chensheng, Kwok, Wai Ming, David Lee Phillips
• Other Authors: School of Materials Science & Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Biochemistry
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/93521; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/7392
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

On the basis of our quantum mechanical calculation, we propose that homogeneous single-stranded adenine bases (Ade-DNA) form helical H aggregates, and the photoexcited states can be described as Frenkel excitons. The calculated excitonic coupling between adjacent transition dipoles is in good agreement with the measured absorption spectrum of 20-base homogeneous adenine stacks that exhibits a blue shift of 2.6 nm relative to that of the monomeric species.