Base Stacking
Base stacking interactions in DNA and RNA are due to dispersion attraction, short-range exchange repulsion, and electrostatic interactions, which also contribute to stability. Again, GC stacking interactions with adjacent bases tend to be more favorable. (Note, however, that a GC stacking interaction with the next base pair is geometrically different from a CG interaction.) Base stacking effects are especially important in the secondary structure and tertiary structure of RNA; for example, RNA stem-loop structures are stabilized by base stacking in the loop region.
Read more about this topic: Base Pair
Famous quotes containing the words base and/or stacking:
“Things base and vile, holding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The Universal Soul, as it is called, has an interest in the stacking of hay, the foddering of cattle, and the draining of peat-meadows.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)