Tautomerism of xanthine: The second-order MØller-Plesset study

Four 9H and four 7H tautomers of DNA base xanthine were studied by the ab initio LCAO-MO method at the MP2/6-311G**//HF/6-31G** and MP2/6-31G**//HF/6-31G** approximations. All calculated structures are minima at the HF/6-31G** potential energy surface with the dioxo 7H tautomer (A1) being the global minimum. The second most stable tautomer, dioxo-9H (B1) is by 9 kcal/mol less stable. For the A1 → B1 transition the calculated MP2 energy gap corresponds to the equilibrium constant of 2 × 10−7. Therefore, only the major tautomeric form A1 is predicted to be detectable in the gas phase. The 7H and 9H groups of tautomers are discussed separately. Within both groups, the dioxo form (A1-7H, B1-9H) is the most stable one and is succeeded by the 2-dihydroxy (A2, B2) form. However, while the energy difference between A1 and A2 is 10 kcal/mol, the energy difference between B1 a B2 is only 2 kcal/mol. The effect of polar environment was estimated by the SCRF method, using a spherical cavity, at the HF/6-31G** level. These calculations did not change the gas phase stability order of the tautomers. However, the energy difference between A1 and B1 decreased from 9 kcal/mol at the HF/6-31G** level to 4 kcal/mol at the SCRF HF/6-31G** level.

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