We describe the first direct observation of N-H···O=C hydrogen bonding in nucleic acids via thefour-bond
4hJNiNj coupling within an N1
i-H1
i···O6
j=C6
j-N1
j segment of a G·G·G·G tetrad. The experiment,two-dimensional (2D) HN(N)-TOCSY, makes use of b
and-selective
15N isotropic mixing to transfermagnetization exclusively via the
4hJNN couplings to yield correlations between N1H
i(
2)
and N1
j(
1) acrossthe hydrogen-bonded segment. In a complementary experiment, 2D cross-polarization (CP)-H(N)CO-(NN)-TOCSY, employing b
and-selective heteronuclear
15N-
13C cross-polarization sequences on either side of the
15N-
15N TOCSY period, correlations are obtained between N1H
i(
2)
and C6
j(
1) nuclei across the hydrogenbond. The symmetric A
2X
2-type coupling topology of the four-spin nitrogen system in the G·G·G·G tetradpermits accurate measurement of these couplings by a new procedure that fits the experimental data withknown analytical isotropic mixing transfer functions. The techniques are demonstrated on a G·G·G·G tetradformed within a novel dimeric quadruplex fold of a uniformly
13C/
15N-labeled d(G-G-G-T-T-C-A-G-G) DNAsequence. The value of the
4hJNN coupling constant for this system is estimated to be 0.136 ± 0.021 Hz.