Complexity of excited-state dynamics in DNA

Dimitra Markovitsi (), Francis Talbot, Thomas Gustavsson, Delphine Onidas, Elodie Lazzarotto and Sylvie Marguet
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Dimitra Markovitsi: Laboratoire Francis Perrin, CEA/DSM/DRECAM/SPAM–CNRS URA 2453, CEA Saclay
Francis Talbot: Laboratoire Francis Perrin, CEA/DSM/DRECAM/SPAM–CNRS URA 2453, CEA Saclay
Thomas Gustavsson: Laboratoire Francis Perrin, CEA/DSM/DRECAM/SPAM–CNRS URA 2453, CEA Saclay
Delphine Onidas: Laboratoire Francis Perrin, CEA/DSM/DRECAM/SPAM–CNRS URA 2453, CEA Saclay
Elodie Lazzarotto: Laboratoire Francis Perrin, CEA/DSM/DRECAM/SPAM–CNRS URA 2453, CEA Saclay
Sylvie Marguet: Laboratoire Francis Perrin, CEA/DSM/DRECAM/SPAM–CNRS URA 2453, CEA Saclay

Nature, 2006, vol. 441, issue 7094, E7-E7

Abstract: Abstract Arising from: C. E. Crespo-Hernández, B. Cohen & B. Kohler Nature 436, 1141–1144 (2005); Crespo-Hernández et al. reply Absorption of ultraviolet light by DNA is known to lead to carcinogenic mutations, but the processes between photon absorption and the photochemical reactions are poorly understood. In their study of the excited-stated dynamics of model DNA helices using femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy1, Crespo-Hernández et al. observe that the picosecond component of the transient signals recorded for the adenine–thymine oligonucleotide (dA)18·(dT)18 is close to that for (dA)18, but quite different from that for (dAdT)9·(dAdT)9; from this observation, they conclude that excimer formation limits excitation energy to one strand at a time. Here we use time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy to probe the excited-state dynamics, which reveals the complexity of these systems and indicates that the interpretation of Crespo-Hernández et al. is an oversimplification. We also comment on the pertinence of separating base stacking and base pairing in excited-state dynamics of double helices and question the authors' assignment of the long-lived signal component found for (dA)18·(dT)18 to adenine excimers.

Date: 2006
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DOI: 10.1038/nature04903

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