Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 29, 2026

Determination of the Gas-phase Acidities of Oligopeptides
Published on: June 24, 2013
Density functional theory study on the interaction between keto-9H guanine and aspartic acid
Patrina Thompson Harris1, Glake A Hill
1Interdisciplinary Nanotoxicity Center, Department of Chemistry, Jackson State University, Jackson, MS 39217, USA.
Abstract:
A theoretical study was performed using density functional theory (DFT) to investigate hydrogen bonding interactions in signature complexes formed between keto-9H guanine (Gua) and aspartic acid (Asp) at neutral pH. Optimized geometries, binding energies and the theoretical IR spectra of guanine, aspartic acid and their corresponding complexes (Gua-Asp) were calculated using the B3LYP method and the 6-31+G(d) basis set. Stationary points found to be at local minima on the potential energy surface were verified by second derivative harmonic vibrational frequency calculations at the same level of theory. AIM theory was used to analyze the hydrogen bonding characteristics of these DNA base complex systems. Our results show that the binding motif for the most stable complex is strikingly similar to a Watson-Crick motif observed in the guanine-cytosine base pair. We have found a range of hydrogen bonding interactions between guanine and aspartic acid in the six complexes. This was further verified by theoretical IR spectra of ω(C-H--O-H) cm(-1) stretches for the Gua-Asp complexes. The electron density plot indicates strong hydrogen bonding as shown by the 2p(z) dominant HOMO orbital character.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Amino acids
Allosteric Proteins-ATCase
Aspartate transcarbamoylase (ATCase) is a cytosolic enzyme that catalyzes the condensation of L-aspartate and carbamoyl phosphate to N-carbamoyl-L-aspartate. This reaction is the first step in pyrimidine biosynthesis. UTP and CTP, the end products of the pyrimidine synthesis pathway,...
DNA Base Pairing
Basicity of Heterocyclic Aromatic Amines
Noncovalent Attractions in Biomolecules
Four types of noncovalent interactions are hydrogen bonds, van der Waals forces, ionic bonds, and hydrophobic interactions.
Hydrogen bonding results from the electrostatic attraction of a hydrogen atom covalently bonded to a strong-electronegative atom like oxygen,...
Ligand Binding and Linkage

