Conspectus The intrinsic fluorescence of nucleic acids is extremely weak compared to that
of the fluorescent labels used to probe their structural and functional behavior. Thus, for …

The response of DNA and RNA bases to ultraviolet (UV) radiation has been receiving
increasing attention for a number of important reasons:(i) the selection of the building blocks …

The characterization of the electronically excited states of DNA strands populated upon solar
UV light absorption is essential to unveil light-induced DNA damage and repair processes …

The T–T photodimerization paths leading to the formation of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer
(CPD) and 6–4 pyrimidine pyrimidone (64‐PP), the two main DNA photolesions, have been …

The ordered structure of UV chromophores in DNA resembles photosynthetic light-
harvesting complexes in which quantum coherence effects play a major role in highly …

There is increasing evidence that the direct absorption of photons with energies that are
lower than the ionization potential of nucleobases may result in oxidative damage to DNA …

In contrast to the immense amount of research on electronically excited DNA, surprisingly
little has been done about the excited states of RNA. Herein, we demonstrate an ultrafast …

During the past few years, several studies reported that a significant part of the intrinsic
fluorescence of DNA duplexes decays with surprisingly long lifetimes (1–3 ns) at …

Recent studies have evidenced that oxidatively damaged DNA, which potentially leads to
carcinogenic mutations and aging, may result from the direct absorption of low-energy …

The assessment of DNA damage by means of appropriate fluorescent probes is widely
spread. In the specific case of UV-induced damage, it has been suggested to use the …