Neutron fibre diffraction study of DNA hydration.

Interactions with water are crucial to the conformation assumed by the DNA double helix. The location of water around the D conformation has been investigated in a neutron fibre diffraction study which shows that water is ordered in the minor groove of the DNA. The D conformation is important since its occurrence is limited to specific DNA base pair sequences which have been identified as functionally significant. This study is of particular interest because the D conformation has not been reported in single crystal studies of oligonucleotides.