Electronic structure study of the bases in DNA duplexes by in situ photon-in/photon-out soft X-ray spectroscopy

• Understanding protein functionality is of fundamental importance in biochemistry. Soft X-ray transitions, where the core-level vacancies are filled by the valence-orbital electrons, give direct information about the chemical bonding. Soft X-ray absorption and emission study of poly(dG) -poly(dC) in aqueous solutions can elucidate the relation between the structure and functionality of proteins. We report the N K-edge soft X-ray absorption (XAS) and resonant soft X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) to characterize the electronic structure near the Fermi level of DNA duplexes to specify the charge migration mechanism. Since N atoms are included in only bases in DNA duplexes, the XES spectra excited from N Is to unoccupied states purely extract the electronic orbital features of the bases in DNA. The fact that N atoms in different bonding environments form well-defined structure has been determined. The experimental findings provide the evidence for the charge-hopping and/or charge-transfer effects in understanding of electric conduction in DNA duplexes when electrons pass through the pi* states of DNA bases.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Kemi -- Analytisk kemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Chemical Sciences -- Analytical Chemistry (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Atom- och molekylfysik och optik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Soft X-ray absorption and emission spectroscopy

RIXS

Electronic structure

DNA

G-C pair

A-T pair

Spectroscopy

Spektroskopi

Physics

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