How many tautomerization pathways connect Watson–Crick-like G*·T DNA base mispair and wobble mismatches?

In this study, we have theoretically demonstrated the intrinsic ability of the wobble G·T(w)/G*·T*(w)/G·T(w₁)/G·T(w₂) and Watson–Crick-like G*·T(WC) DNA base mispairs to interconvert into each other via the DPT tautomerization. We have established that among all these transitions, only one single G·T(w) ↔ G*·T(WC) pathway is eligible from a biological perspective. It involves short-lived intermediate – the G·T*(WC) base mispair – and is governed by the planar, highly stable, and zwitterionic transition state stabilized by the participation of the unique pattern of the five intermolecular O6⁺H⋯O4⁻, O6⁺H⋯N3⁻, N1⁺H⋯N3⁻, N1⁺H⋯O2⁻, and N2⁺H⋯O2⁻ H-bonds. This non-dissociative G·T(w) ↔ G*·T(WC) tautomerization occurs without opening of the pair: Bases within mispair remain connected by 14 different patterns of the specific intermolecular interactions that successively change each other along the IRC. Novel kinetically controlled mechanism of the thermodynamically non-equilibrium spontaneous point GT/TG incorporation errors has been suggested. The mutagenic effect of the analogues of the nucleotide bases, in particular 5-bromouracil, can be attributed to the decreasing of the barrier of the acquisition by the wobble pair containing these compounds of the enzymatically competent Watson–Crick’s geometry via the intrapair mutagenic tautomerization directly in the essentially hydrophobic recognition pocket of the replication DNA-polymerase machinery. Proposed approaches are able to explain experimental data, namely growth of the rate of the spontaneous point incorporation errors during DNA biosynthesis with increasing temperature.