Quantum mechanical studies on the photophysics and the photochemistry of nucleic acids and nucleobases

R Improta, F Santoro, L Blancafort - Chemical reviews, 2016 - ACS Publications
The photophysics and photochemistry of DNA is of great importance due to the potential
damage of the genetic code by UV light. Quantum mechanical studies have played a key …

Excited states in DNA strands investigated by ultrafast laser spectroscopy

J Chen, Y Zhang, B Kohler - Photoinduced Phenomena in Nucleic Acids II …, 2015 - Springer
Ultrafast laser experiments on carefully selected DNA model compounds probe the effects of
base stacking, base pairing, and structural disorder on excited electronic states formed by …

Charge separation and charge delocalization identified in long-living states of photoexcited DNA

DB Bucher, BM Pilles, T Carell… - Proceedings of the …, 2014 - National Acad Sciences
Base stacking in DNA is related to long-living excited states whose molecular nature is still
under debate. To elucidate the molecular background we study well-defined …

Photoinduced charge separation and DNA self-repair depend on sequence directionality and stacking pattern

CL Kufner, S Crucilla, D Ding, P Stadlbauer… - Chemical …, 2024 - pubs.rsc.org
Charge separation is one of the most common consequences of the absorption of UV light
by DNA. Recently, it has been shown that this process can enable efficient self-repair of …

A 'bottom up', ab initio computational approach to understanding fundamental photophysical processes in nitrogen containing heterocycles, DNA bases and base …

B Marchetti, TNV Karsili, MNR Ashfold… - Physical Chemistry …, 2016 - pubs.rsc.org
The availability of non-radiative decay mechanisms by which photoexcited molecules can
revert to their ground electronic state, without experiencing potentially deleterious chemical …

New insights into the photophysics of DNA nucleobases

VI Prokhorenko, A Picchiotti, M Pola… - The journal of …, 2016 - ACS Publications
We report the results of an extended time-resolved study of DNA nucleobases in aqueous
solutions conducted in the deep UV using broad-band femtosecond transient absorption …

Efficient UV-induced charge separation and recombination in an 8-oxoguanine-containing dinucleotide

Y Zhang, J Dood, AA Beckstead, XB Li… - Proceedings of the …, 2014 - National Acad Sciences
During the early evolution of life, 8-oxo-7, 8-dihydro-2′-deoxyguanosine (O) may have
functioned as a proto-flavin capable of repairing cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers in DNA or …

On the nature of DNA hyperchromic effect

M D'Abramo, CL Castellazzi, M Orozco… - The Journal of …, 2013 - ACS Publications
A combined theoretical–experimental study of the hyperchromic effect as occurring in the
denaturation of a double stranded polyA-polyT is presented. Our theoretical/computational …

DNA as UV light–harvesting antenna

IL Volkov, ZV Reveguk, PY Serdobintsev… - Nucleic acids …, 2018 - academic.oup.com
The ordered structure of UV chromophores in DNA resembles photosynthetic light-
harvesting complexes in which quantum coherence effects play a major role in highly …

Effect of the DNA Polarity on the Relaxation of its Electronic Excited States

V Petropoulos, L Uboldi, M Maiuri… - The journal of …, 2023 - ACS Publications
The DNA polarity, ie., the order in which nucleobases are connected together via the
phosphodiester backbone, is crucial for several biological processes. But, so far, there has …