Unveiled electric profiles within hydrogen bonds suggest DNA base pairs with similar bond strengths

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method to analyze electric field profiles within hydrogen bonds in DNA, revealing that base pairs may have similar bond strengths, challenging previous assumptions based solely on hydrogen bond count.

Contribution

The study presents the first intrabond resolution electric field profiles for hydrogen bonds in DNA, providing new insights into bond strength equivalence among base pairs.

Findings

DNA base pairs may have similar hydrogen bond strengths

Challenging the assumption that G-C pairs are stronger than A-T pairs

Methodology supports deeper understanding of DNA molecular mechanisms

Abstract

Electrical forces are the background of all the interactions occurring in biochemical systems. From here and by using a combination of ab-initio and ad-hoc models, we introduce the first description of electric field profiles with intrabond resolution to support a characterization of single bond forces attending to its electrical origin. This fundamental issue has eluded a physical description so far. Our method is applied to describe hydrogen bonds (HB) in DNA base pairs. Numerical results reveal that base pairs in DNA could be equivalent considering HB strength contributions, which challenges previous interpretations of thermodynamic properties of DNA based on the assumption that Adenine/Thymine pairs are weaker than Guanine/Cytosine pairs due to the sole difference in the number of HB. Thus, our methodology provides solid foundations to support the development of extended models intended to go deeper into the molecular mechanisms of DNA functioning.