Raman difference studies of protein-nucleic acid interactions

Raman difference spectroscopy combined with isotope editing procedures were employed to obtain the Raman spectra of phosphates, nucleotides, nucleic a cids and their fragments when bound to several proteins. The vibrational sp ectra were analyzed using a variety of empirical and ab initio methods to r elate the vibrational wavenumbers to hydrogen bonding strengths, bond order s, bond lengths and geometry and to establish how the proteins bring about these interactions. Some recent results obtained using these methods are re viewed. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.