Figure 5

Positional influence of single base MM defects on the duplex stability for two different NN pair free energies Δ g ° at a temperature of 310 K. Curves a to f correspond to defect destabilization values $\delta \Delta g_{def}^{\circ }$ of 0 to 5 kcal/mol (incrementally increased by 1 kcal/mol). Defect destabilization $\delta \Delta g_{def}^{\circ }$ is quoted per affected NN pair. (A) Δg° = -1.4 kcal/mol, this corresponds to an average NN-pair free energy; (B) Δg° = -0.8 kcal/mol corresponding to a weakly bound sequence of A·T and T·A base pairs.