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Incorporation of modified nucleotides into nucleic acid strands often produces conformational constraints and steric hindrances that may change the property of base pairing. In this study, we investigated a 2'-deoxycytidine derivative that tethers a phenyl moiety to the exocyclic amino group of cytosine linked through a ureido group. This derivative compound is structurally similar to the carbamoylated DNA base lesions produced in cells. The thermodynamic and structural studies showed that the modified dC formed the base pair with dG in the complementary strand, but the base-pairing selectivity toward dG was decreased under poly(ethylene glycol)-mediated osmotic stress. The phenyl group and the ureido linker attached to dC provided selectivity for the formation of base pairing exclusively with dG in a wide range of pH conditions, whereas unmodified dC stabilized the pairings with dA or dC in acidic solutions. Moreover, this modified base could not form self-pairing through intermolecular hydrogen bonds. We suggest that formation of weak pairing and protonation of the cytosine base are hindered due to the base modification. These data provide insights into the pairing selectivity of carbamoylated cytosine lesions produced in cells, and suggest applications of the 2'-deoxycytidine derivatives in medical technologies, molecular biology experiments, and synthesis of a supramolecular network of DNA strands.

Water-soluble neutral cosolutes can be used to quantify biomolecular properties in the particular molecular environment occurring in a cell. We studied the conformation and the thermal stability of DNA and RNA structures in the presence of PEG [poly(ethylene glycol)] and smaller cosolutes of glycerol, ethylene glycol, 1,3-propanediol, 2-methoxyethanol, and 1,2-dimethoxyethane. Although the neutral cosolutes destabilized the oligonucleotide duplex and the hairpin structures, the left-handed Z-form duplex was more energetically favored in the cosolute-containing solutions. These observations were due to the contribution of water molecule on the nucleotide structure formations because the cosolutes act as an osmolyte to reduce the water activity of a solution. Moreover, the sodium ion condensation for the duplex and the hairpin formations was reduced in the presence of PEG, while that for the transition from the B-form to the Z-form was unaltered. The CD (circular dichroism) and EPR (electron paramagnetic resonance) spectra demonstrated that the cosolutes changed the helical conformation of the unstructured oligonucleotides, but not those of the ordered structures. The results of the favorable formation of the noncanonical nucleotide structures, and minimized conformational and thermal perturbations of the ordered nucleotide structures in the cosolute-containing solutions implicate the significance of the intracellular environment on DNA and RNA structures in a cell.