Temperature-Dependent Excited State Absorption in DNA and LNA Oligomers Supports an Emerging Model of Excited State Dynamics in DNA

Transient absorption measurements of excited states in DNA and LNA were performed using a femtosecond pump-probe arrangement with excitation at 266 nm and absorption monitored at 400 nm while varying the sample tem- perature between 5 °C and 70 °C. Samples consisted of adenine monophosphate monomer, polyadenine 12-mer in single- stranded form, and polyadenine 12-mer in hybridized form. Excited states decayed in a biphasic manner with short-lived ( 1) and long-lived ( 2) components, while the monomer had only a 'single' short-lived decay time. Temperature increases increased absorption intensities and reduced  1 until they approached those of the monomer at high temperatures (where stacking is minimal). These results suggest that the initial excitation in stacked regions is cooperative and involves several bases and that the number of bases involved is reduced with increasing temperature. In contrast, increasing temperatures had little effect on  2 while absorption intensities decreased, suggesting that very few, perhaps only two, stacked bases are involved and that their number is reduced at higher temperatures. We found no clear evidence of melting point transitions indicating that those excited states probed with our arrangement were not dependent on base pairing. Our results are con- sistent with and strengthen an emerging consensus model of excited state dynamics in DNA wherein a UV photon is ab- sorbed collectively by electronically coupled and thus well-stacked intrachain bases. This collective excitation results in a Frenkel exciton that is delocalized over these bases, and the Frenkel exciton then decays rapidly to a long-lived, lower en- ergy, dark intrachain exciplex.