Studying the Key Intermediate of RNA Autohydrolysis by Cryogenic Gas‐Phase Infrared Spectroscopy

Journal article

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, mRNA-basedvaccineshave gained tremendous importance. The development and analysis of modified RNA moleculesbenefit from advanced mass spectrometry and require sufficient understanding of fragmentation processes.Analogous tothe degradation of RNA in solution by autohydrolysis,backbone cleavage of RNA strands wasequally observedin the gas phase; however, the fragmentation mechanism remained elusive.In this work,autohydrolysis-like intermediates weregenerated from isolated RNA dinucleotidesin the gas phaseand investigatedusing cryogenic infrared spectroscopy in helium nanodroplets.Data from both experiment and density functional theory provide evidence forthe formation of a five-membered cyclic phosphateintermediateand rule outlinear orsix-membered structures. Furthermore, the experiments show that another prominent condensed-phase reactionof RNA nucleotides can be induced in the gas phase: the tautomerization of cytosine.Both observed reactions aretherefore highlyuniversal and intrinsic properties of the investigated molecules

Authors: Greis, K; Kirschbaum, C; Taccone, MI; Götze, M; Gewinner, S

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Wiley
• Journal: Angewandte Chemie International Edition
• Volume: 61
• Issue: 19
• Pages: e202115481-e202115481
• Publication date: 2022-03-24
• DOI: 10.1002/anie.202115481
• EISSN: 1521-3773
• ISSN: 1433-7851
• Language: English
• Keywords: Tautomer; Biochemistry; RNA; Chromatography; Organic chemistry; Infrared spectroscopy; Mass spectrometry; Gas phase; Chemistry; Physics; Infrared; Molecule; Nucleotide; Biology; Physical chemistry; Fragmentation (computing); Stereochemistry