Communication: Site-selective bond excision of adenine upon electron transfer

5 pags., 2 figs.This work demonstrates that selective excision of hydrogen atoms at a particular site of the DNA base adenine can be achieved in collisions with electronegative atoms by controlling the impact energy. The result is based on analysing the time-of-flight mass spectra yields of potassium collisions with a series of labeled adenine derivatives. The production of dehydrogenated parent anions is consistent with neutral H loss either from selective breaking of C-H or N-H bonds. These unprecedented results open up a new methodology in charge transfer collisions that can initiate selective reactivity as a key process in chemical reactions that are dominant in different areas of science and technology.T.C., M.M., and F.F.S. acknowledge the Portuguese National Funding Agency FCT-MCTES through No. SFRH/BD/52538/2014, PD/BD/106038/2015, and researcher position No. IF-FCT IF/00380/2014, respectively, and together with PLV the research Grant No. UID/FIS/00068/2013. This work was also supported by Radiation Biology and Biophysics Doctoral Training Programme (RaBBiT, No. PD/00193/2010); No. UID/Multi/04378/2013 (UCIBIO). GG acknowledges partial financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad (Project No. FIS2016-80440). S.E. acknowledges support from the British EPSRC through a Career Acceleration Fellowship (No. EP/J002577/1).Peer Reviewe