Inner- and outer-sphere binding of the minor groove site of adenine by alkali metal ions

A report on the preparation and molecular structures of Na sub(+) and K sub(+) complexes was presented. A range of models for probing the interaction of d-block metal ions with purine sites located in the minor groove of DNA were used. The compounds contained an additional metal ion-binding site tethered at the position of the deoxyribose ring. Na sub(+) and K sub(+) ions exhibited different modes of interaction with the N3 site of the DNA base adenine in a model system.