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Title: Bond- and Site-Selective Loss of H{sup -} from Pyrimidine Bases

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
; ; ; ; ;  [1]
  1. Institut fuer Ionenphysik and Center of Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck, Leopold Franzens Universitaet Innsbruck, Technikerstrasse 25, A-6020 Innsbruck (Austria)

Electron attachment to gas phase thymine and uracil leads to H{sup -} loss within a broad and structured feature in the energy range between about 5 and 12 eV consisting of 4 overlapping resonances. By using thymine and uracil methylated at the N1 and N3 positions, respectively, and taking into account recent results from partly deuterated thymine, we find that by tuning the electron energy, H{sup -} loss turns out to be not only bond selective, i.e., (C-H) versus (N-H) bonds, but also site selective (N1 versus N3 site). Such a bond and site selectivity by energy has not been observed before in dissociative electron attachment. Implications for the mechanism of strand breaks observed in plasmid DNA are considered.

OSTI ID:
20699371
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Vol. 95, Issue 9; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.093201; (c) 2005 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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