Interaction between thymine dimer and flavin-adenine dinucleotide: a DFT and direct ab initio molecular dynamics study

J Phys Chem B. 2008 Jun 19;112(24):7315-9. doi: 10.1021/jp801564t. Epub 2008 May 27.

Abstract

The interaction between the fully reduced flavin-adenine dinucleotide (FADH (-)) and thymine dimer (T) 2 has been investigated by means of density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The charges of FADH (-) and (T) 2 were calculated to be -0.9 and -0.1, respectively, at the ground state. By photoirradiation, an electron transfer occurred from FADH (-) to (T) 2 at the first excited state. Next, the reaction dynamics of electron capture of (T) 2 have been investigated by means of the direct ab initio molecular dynamics (MD) method (HF/3-21G(d) and B3LYP/6-31G(d) levels) in order to elucidate the mechanism of the repair process of thymine dimer caused by the photoenzyme. The thymine dimer has two C-C single bonds between thymine rings (C 5-C 5' and C 6-C 6' bonds) at the neutral state, which is expressed by (T) 2. After the electron capture of (T) 2, the C 5-C 5' bond was gradually elongated and then it was preferentially broken. The time scale of the C-C bond breaking and formation of the intermediate with a single bond (T) 2 (-) was estimated to be 100-150 fs. The present calculations confirmed that the repair reaction of thymine dimer takes place efficiently via an electron-transfer process from the FADH (-) enzyme.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • DNA Repair*
  • Electrons
  • Flavin-Adenine Dinucleotide / chemistry*
  • Models, Chemical
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Structure
  • Photochemistry
  • Pyrimidine Dimers / chemistry*
  • Static Electricity

Substances

  • Pyrimidine Dimers
  • Flavin-Adenine Dinucleotide