Interactions of Solvated Electrons with Nucleobases: The Effect of Base Pairing

We have investigated the effect of base pairing on the electron attachment to nucleobases in bulk water, taking the guanine-cytosine (GC) base pair as a test case. The presence of the complementary base reinforces the stabilization effect provided by water and preferentially stabilizes the anion by hydrogen bonding. The electron attachment in bulk-solvated GC happens through a doorway mechanism, where the initial electron attached state is water bound, and it subsequently gets converted to a GC bound state. The additional electron in the final GC bound state is localized on the cytosine, similar to that in the gas phase. The transfer of the electron from the initial water-bound state to the final GC bound state happens due to the mixing of electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom and takes place at a picosecond time scale.