Wednesday, 23 November, 2011
Mechanism of UV-Induced Formation of Dewar Lesions in DNA
K. Haiser, B. P. Fingerhut, K. Heil, A. Glas, T. T. Herzog, B. M. Pilles, W. J. Schreier, W. Zinth, R. de Vivie-Riedle, and T. Carell -
Angew. Chem. Int. Edition, doi: 10.1002/anie.201106231, published online: 23 November 2011
The importance of a backbone: The mechanism of formation of Dewar lesions (see scheme) has been investigated by using femtosecond IR spectroscopy and ab initio calculations of the exited state. The 4 electrocyclization is rather slow, occurs with an unusual high quantum yield, andsurprisinglyis controlled by the phosphate backbone.