Journal article
PNA hybridizes to complementary oligonucleotides obeying the Watson-Crick hydrogen-bonding rules
DNA analogues are currently being intensely investigated owing to their potential as gene-targeted drugs. Furthermore, their properties and interaction with DNA and RNA could provide a better understanding of the structural features of natural DNA that determine its unique chemical, biological and genetic properties.
We recently designed a DNA analogue, PNA, in which the backbone is structurally homomorphous with the deoxyribose backbone and consists of N-(2-aminoethyl)glycine units to which the nucleobases are attached. We showed that PNA oligomers containing solely thymine and cytosine can hybridize to complementary oligonucleotides, presumably by forming Watson-Crick-Hoogsteen (PNA)2-DNA triplexes, which are much more stable than the corresponding DNA-DNA duplexes, and bind to double-stranded DNA by strand displacement.
We report here that PNA containing all four natural nucleobases hybridizes to complementary oligonucleotides obeying the Watson-Crick base-pairing rules, and thus is a true DNA mimic in terms of base-pair recognition.
Language: | English |
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Publisher: | Nature Publishing Group UK |
Year: | 1993 |
Pages: | 566-568 |
Journal subtitle: | International Weekly Journal of Science |
ISSN: | 00280836 and 14764687 |
Types: | Journal article |
DOI: | 10.1038/365566a0 |
ORCIDs: | 0000-0001-8771-330X |
Base Sequence Cytosine Cytosine/chemistry DNA DNA/chemistry Glycine Glycine/analogs & derivatives Hydrogen Bonding Molecular Sequence Data N-(2-aminoethyl)glycine Nucleic Acid Hybridization Oligodeoxyribonucleotides Oligodeoxyribonucleotides/chemistry RNA RNA/chemistry Thermodynamics Thymine Thymine/chemistry