A Comprehensive Ab Initio Study of Halogenated A···U and G···C Base Pair Geometries and Energies

Unraveling the binding preferences involved in the formation of a supramolecular complex is key to properly understand molecular recognition and aggregation phenomena, which are of pivotal importance to biology. The halogenation of nucleic acids has been routinely carried out for decades to assist in their X-ray diffraction analysis. The incorporation of a halogen atom on a DNA/RNA base not only affected its electronic distribution, but also expanded the noncovalent interactions toolbox beyond the classical hydrogen bond (HB) by incorporating the halogen bond (HalB). In this regard, an inspection of the Protein Data Bank (PDB) revealed 187 structures involving halogenated nucleic acids (either unbound or bound to a protein) where at least 1 base pair (BP) exhibited halogenation. Herein, we were interested in disclosing the strength and binding preferences of halogenated A···U and G···C BPs, which are predominant in halogenated nucleic acids. To achieve that, computations at the RI-MP2/def2-TZVP level of theory together with state of the art theoretical modeling tools (including the computation of molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) surfaces, the quantum theory of "Atoms in Molecules" (QTAIM) and the non-covalent interactions plot (NCIplot) analyses) allowed for the characterization of the HB and HalB complexes studied herein.