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Definition
Proteins, DNAs, and RNAs are linear polymers where a limited set of residues are joined together by, respectively, the amide or phosphodiester bonds. The situation is similar for carbohydrates though the linking options are more varied here. To a first approximation, the absorbance spectrum expected for a biomolecule is the sum of the component parts. However, the polymerization process and the packing of the units perturb the spectra as discussed below (Berova et al. 2014; Nordén et al. 2010; Wallace and Janes 2009).
Basic Characteristics
Electronic Spectroscopy of Nucleic Acid Bases
The absorption spectra of nucleic acids in the easily accessible region of the spectrum (down to ∼180 nm) are dominated by π → π* transitions, which are, by symmetry, all polarized in the plane of the bases, so approximately perpendicular to the helix axis in B-DNA. The absorbance spectra of the DNA bases thymine (T), adenine (A), guanine (G),...
References
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Rodger, A. (2018). UV Absorbance Spectroscopy of Biological Macromolecules. In: Roberts, G., Watts, A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Biophysics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35943-9_780-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35943-9_780-1
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