Reaction electronic flux and its role in DNA intramolecular proton transfers

Proton transfer reactions present a key step in many biological and chemical processes. Here, we focused on the electronic changes in the proton transfer reactions of the four DNA bases. In combination with the previous structural analysis the reaction electronic flux together with local descriptors as the Hirshfeld-I charges allow us to identify chemical events and rationalize the underlying reaction mechanism. Our results show that imine-enamine in adenine and citosyne, and keto-enol tautomerizations in thymine and guanine have different reaction mechanisms. The former involve net structural rearrangements driven by favoured electrostatic interactions between the proton and the acceptor atom whereas the keto-enol tautomerizations require electronic changes reflected in the reaction electronic flux and changes in the NBO bond orders which favour the proton transfer reaction.