Nucleic acid bases contain a number of carbon atoms without directly attached protons. These include carbonyl groups in cytosine, thymine, uracil, and guanine, the C4 atom in cytosine, C5 in thymine, C4, C5, C6 in adenine, and C2, C4, and C5 in guanine. The direct detection of these carbon atoms offers an alternative method for obtaining their chemical shift values and/or data for investigation of the dynamics of nucleic acid bases. Furthermore, the chemical shifts of the amino nitrogen atoms whose protons are broadened beyond detection due to the exchange with water can be obtained using a 13C-detected 13C-15N correlation experiment. In the sugar moiety, the carbon detected experiments are suitable for obtaining 1H-13C correlations in the cases where the proton signal is obscured by the large water peak.