Hydration of oligonucleotides in crystals

The solvent molecules found around crystallized oligonucleotides after X-ray refinement are analysed in terms of interaction sites to bases, phosphates and sugars in the three main forms of nucleic acid structures, the A-form, the B-form and the Z-form. The average numbers of contacts to nucleic acid atoms made by solvent molecules are identical in the three forms, but it appears that the average number of contacts solvent molecules make with each other depends on the resolution of the structure. The phosphate anionic oxygen atoms are the most hydrated, while the O(3′) and O(5′) backbone atoms and the ring oxygen atom O(4′) are the least hydrated. Among the hydrophilic atoms of the bases, there is a modulation of the relative water affinities with the nucleic acid form. Numerous hydration sites are such that water molecules can bridge hydrophilic atoms of the same residue, of adjacent residues on the same strand, of distant residues on the two strands, or belonging to symmetry-related residues. Through the helical periodicity of the nucleic acid structure, those bridges can lead to regular and striking hydration networks involving several water molecules and characteristic of the nucleic acid form. Solvent dynamics, as seen by temperature factor versus occupancy plots, seems intimately related to nucleic acid structure and dynamics, since they depend on hydration sites around the nucleic acids.