Received April 14, 2003

Abstract:

The DNA base adenine and four monomethylated adenines were studied in solution at room temperature by femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy. Transient absorption at visible probe wavelengths was used to directly observe relaxation of the lowest excited singlet state (S₁ state) populated by a UV pump pulse. In H₂O, transient absorption signals from adenine decay biexponentially with lifetimes of 0.18 ± 0.03 ps and 8.8 ± 1.2 ps. In contrast, signals from monomethylated adenines decay monoexponentially. The S₁ lifetimes of 1-, 3-, and 9-methyladenine are similar to one another and are all below 300 fs, while 7-methyladenine has a significantly longer lifetime ( = 4.23 ± 0.13 ps). On this basis, the biexponential signal of adenine is assigned to an equilibrium mixture of the 7H- and 9H-amino tautomers. Excited-state absorption (ESA) by 9-methyladenine is 50% stronger than by 7-methyladenine. Assuming that ESA by the corresponding tautomers of adenine is unchanged, we estimate the population of 7H-adenine in H₂O at room temperature to be 22 ± 4% (estimated standard deviation). To understand how the environment affects nonradiative decay, we performed the first solvent-dependent study of nucleobase dynamics on the ultrafast time scale. In acetonitrile, both lowest energy tautomers of adenine are present in roughly similar proportions as in water. The lifetimes of the 9-substituted adenines depend somewhat more sensitively on the solvent than those of the 7-substituted adenines. Transient signals for adenine in H₂O and D₂O are identical. These solvent effects strongly suggest that excited-state tautomerization is not an important nonradiative decay pathway. Instead, the data are most consistent with electronic energy relaxation due to state crossings between the optically prepared ¹* state and one or more ¹n* states and the electronic ground state. The pattern of lifetimes measured for the monomethylated adenines suggests a special role for the ¹n* state associated with the N7 electron lone pair.

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