We prepared a series of imidazolium-substituted uracil-anions which are members of the class of cross-conjugated heterocyclic mesomeric betaines. They are in tautomeric equilibrium with their N-heterocyclic carbenes, uracil-6-yl-imidazol-2-ylidenes. These carbenes can be trapped by reaction with sulfur, selenium, as well as by triethylborane and triphenylborane, respectively. The latter trappin...

This paper is a density functional theory (DFT) calculation of intramolecular proton transfer (IPT) in 6-hydroxypicolinic acid (6HPA, 6-hydroxypyridine-2-carboxylic acid) tautomeric forms. The transition state for the enol-to-keto transition is reported in the gas phase and in four different solvents. The planar and non-planar dimer forms of 6HPA keto and enol, respectively, were also studied i...

The excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) in 1-(trifluoroacetylamino)naphthaquinone (TFNQ) has been investigated using the CASSCF and CASPT2 computational approaches with the 6-31G(d) basis set. The structures and relative energies of critical points along the proton transfer reaction coordinate were optimized and the associated spectroscopic and electrostatic properties obtained...

The Acetaldimine-Vinylamine tautomeric system has been studied by employing the MNDO semiempirical method. The imine structure was found to be energetically favorable, as indicated by the calculated heats of formation, Gibbs free energy, LUMO and HOMO, and charges. The substitution of F, Cl, CN, CH3, CF3, NO2 and BH2 at the α-position was found to affect the geometrical parameters. F and Cl sub...

The tautomeric and recognition properties of thymine, 2and 4-thiothymines have been studied by means of accurate ab initio methods combined with molecular dynamics simulations and free energy calculations. In contrast to previous suggestions in the literature, the replacement of carbonyl oxygens by sulphur atoms does not lead to dramatic changes in tautomeric properties of the pyrimidine deriva...

The ketoenamine-enolimine tautometic equilibrium has been studied by the analysis of aromaticity and electron-topological parameters. The influence of substituents on the energy of the transition state and of the tautomeric forms has been investigated for different positions of chelate chain. The quantum theory of atoms in molecules method (QTAIM) has been applied to study changes in the electr...

Infrared multiple photon dissociation action spectra of the protonated forms of the cytidyl nucleosides, 2'-deoxycytidine, [dCyd+H](+), and cytidine, [Cyd+H](+), are acquired over the IR fingerprint and hydrogen-stretching regions. Electronic structure calculations are performed at the B3LYP/6-311+G(d,p) level to determine the stable low-energy tautomeric conformations of these species generate...

Fluorinated amino acids serve as valuable biological probes, by reporting on local protein structure and dynamics through 19F NMR chemical shifts. 2-fluorohistidine and 4-fluorohistidine, studied here with DFT methods, have even more capabilities for biophysical studies, as their altered pKa values, relative to histidine, allow for studies of the role of proton transfer and tautomeric state in ...

Light isomerizes the chromophore of rhodopsin, 11-cis retinal (formerly retinene), to the all-trans configuration. This introduces a succession of unstable intermediates-pre-lumirhodopsin, lumirhodopsin, metarhodopsin -in which all-trans retinal is still attached to the chromophoric site on opsin. Finally, retinal is hydrolyzed from opsin. The present experiments show that metarhodopsin exists ...