RNA DNA HYBRID DUPLEXES WITH IDENTICAL NEAREST-NEIGHBOR BASE-PAIRS HAVE IDENTICAL STABILITY/

Energetic behaviors of eight pairs of RNA/DNA hybrid duplexes with ide ntical nearest neighbors have been investigated by UV melting analysis . In the pairs with identical nearest-neighbor pairs, the melting curv e traces at the same strand concentration were very similar. The avera ge difference in stabilization energy of these pairs was 4%, which was about expected within experimental error. These results indicate that the nearest-neighbor model is valid for predicting the stability of R NA/DNA hybrid duplexes as well as RNA/RNA and DNA/DNA duplexes.