Polymerase Recognition of Unnatural Base Pairs

✍ Scribed by Chengzhi Yu; Allison A. Henry; Floyd E. Romesberg; Peter G. Schultz

• Book ID: 101365139
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 92 KB
• Volume: 41
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0044-8249
• DOI: 10.1002/1521-3773(20021018)41:20<3841::aid-anie3841>3.0.co;2-q

✦ Synopsis

The storage and replication of genetic information requires bases that pair stably and selectively in duplex DNA and are also good substrates for DNA polymerases. Though the four natural bases pair by hydrogen bonding, there is no reason to assume that the pairing of two unnatural bases could not be driven by other intermolecular interactions, for example, those based on hydrophobicity. 2] To investigate this issue, a wide variety of hydrophobic base pairs has been characterized. [3, For example, ICS (see Figure ) and its derivative PICS, with a propynyl group at C7, form self-pairs in duplex DNA that are as stable as natural base pairs. The unnatural triphosphates are also inserted opposite themselves in the COMMUNICATIONS