Physical Principles in Nucleic Acid Chemistry
Foundations of Biochemistry and Biophysics Series

This textbook covers the physical properties of nucleic acid underlying the biological functions of DNA and RNA. It looks at the variety of nucleic acid structures observed in nature, thermodynamic and energetic principles that govern the formation and behavior of those structures, and the ways proteins recognize and manipulate nucleic acids. It

Nucleic acid structure. The building blocks of nucleic acid structure. DNA helices and non-canonical structures. RNA secondary and tertiary structure. Energetics of forming DNA and RNA structures. Thermodynamics of secondary structure formation in DNA and RNA. Salt and the stability of duplex DNA. Thermodynamics and kinetics of RNA tertiary structure formation. DNA flexibility: bending, twisting, and supercoiling. Non-specific DNA binding. Specific DNA sequence recognition. RNA binding proteins. Small molecule — nucleic acid interactions. Manipulation of nucleic acids by proteins and protein complexes. Appendix.

David E. Draper, Johns Hopkins University, Department of Chemistry / Department of Biophysics.