The bases and other important building blocks Properties of bonds in Nucleic Acid Chains Sugar Conformations Conformations of the backbone. Rotational isomers of N-bases. Backbone is biased towards sterically allowed conformations that minimize electrostatic energy.
Most favored conformations are the most exteneded ones.
The backbone by itself does not fold into a regular helical conformation. Can't predict structure leading to double strand configuration. Other forces must play a role in stabilizing regular nucleic acid structures. DNA Structure in Solution. Generally long polymers do not crystallize.