[Interactions between nucleic acid bases. New parameters of potential functions and energy minima]

The parameters of atom-atom potential functions suggested by one of the authors in 1979-1986 were slightly changed. The changes were performed to achieve a better agreement with experimental data of interaction energy values in global minima and hydrogen bond lengths. These changes resulted in better accord with experimental values of distances between the layers in DNA monomer crystals and between the base pairs in oligonucleotide duplexes. The refined potential functions were used to calculate the energy of interactions between nucleic acid bases in various mutual positions. The calculations revealed a few types of mutual base arrangements in minima of interaction energy for each pairwise base combination. A new type of minima was found, which correspond to a nearly perpendicular arrangement of base rings and the formation of the intermolecular hydrogen bond.