X-ray absorption spectrum for guanosine-5′-monophosphate in water solution in the vicinity of the nitrogen K-edge observed in free liquid jet in vacuum

A new spectroscopy for direct effect of radiation damage to nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA is underway using a liquid beam sample in vacuum combined with soft-X-ray synchrotron radiation. We show the X-ray absorption spectrum (XANES) of liquid phase water at X-ray photon energy in the vicinity of oxygen K-shell absorption edge obtained from total photoelectron yields ejected from a pure water beam. We confirm a liquid sample in vacuum for the present experiment by the measurements of the temperature dependence of the XANES spectrum for a liquid beam of pure water. Shown is the first measurement of the XANES spectrum for guanosine-5'-monophosphate (GMP), which is one of the fundamental nucleotide unit for RNA, in water solution at X-ray photon energy in the vicinity of nitrogen K-shell absorption edge involved in the 'water-window' region, which corresponds to a selective excitation of guanine site. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.