Perturbed or Not Perturbed?

In this book structural and dynamic perturbations in DNA helices upon incorporation of fluorophores are characterized by NMR spectroscopy. Two fluorophores are examined in detail: 2-Aminopurine (2AP) and 2-Hydroxy-7-nitrofluorene(HNF) which function as base and base pair surrogates, respectively. Improved protocols for NMR data analysis and subsequent calculations are described. State-of-the-art NMR experiments such as measurement of Residual Dipolar Couplings, are demonstrated to enable detection of hitherto unknown, very slight structural perturbations of a DNA helix around the 2AP modification site. Advances at the experimental as well as data analysis levels are shown to allow for determination of base pair lifetimes