An extensive proton nuclear magnetic resonance (nmr) study is reported for all common purine and pyrimidine 5'-ribo-and deoxyribonucleotides at 220 MHz.Spectra for these nucleotides were measured in D20 solutions at 20 f 2' and signal assignments made with the aid of selected "-'H and 3'P-'H decoupling experiments.Complete sets of accurate chemical shifts and coupling constants were derived for each nucleotide by iterative procedures and yielded close agreement between observed and calculated spectra. The nmr parameters have been utilized in a quantitative evaluation of several key nucleotide conformational features including equilibrium conformations of ribose and deoxyribose rings, preferred exocyclic group orientations, and base-ribose ring orientation. A quantitative conformational analysis was made for the D-ribose and D-deoxyribose rings of all the 5'-riboncleotides following procedures analogous to those developed recently by Altona and Sundaralingam. The analysis is based on an assumption of a rapidly equilibrating mixture between N type [C(3')-endo, C(2')-exo] and S type [C(2')-endo, C(3')-exo] conformers, N * S. With the aid of graphical plots quantitative estimates were made of pseudorotational angle, P, degree of pucker, T, and ring conformer populations. The results show that the pseudorotational parameters (P, T) do not vary significantly between nucleotides and are generally within ranges found in the crystalline state. An S-type conformation is favored in both ribo-and deoxyribonucleotides at 20° with the equilibrium lying somewhat more in favor of the S conformer in the latter, i.e., 70:30 vs. 60:40. Possible effects of electronegativity change upon pseudorotationa1 parameters were explored and it was concluded that no particular advantage is gained by using adjusted Karplus expressions for individual ring molecular fragments at the present accuracy of measured coupling constants. A confor-T h e structure, conformations, and interactions of purine and pyrimidine nucleosides and 5'-ribo-and deoxyribonucleotides have been the subject of extensive investigations in recent years (Sundaralingam