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Abstract Synthetic genetics is an area of synthetic biology that aims to extend the properties of heredity and evolution to artificial genetic polymers, commonly known as xeno‐nucleic acids or XNAs. In addition to establishing polymerases that are able to convert genetic information back and forth between DNA and XNA, efforts are underway to construct XNAs with expanded chemical functionality. α‐L‐Threose nucleic acid (TNA), a type of XNA that is recalcitrant to nuclease digestion and amenable to Darwinian evolution, provides a model system for developing XNAs with functional groups that are not present in natural DNA and RNA. Here, we describe the synthesis and polymerase activity of a cytidine TNA triphosphate analog (6‐phenyl‐pyrrolocytosine, tCpTP) that maintains Watson‐Crick base pairing with guanine. Polymerase‐mediated primer extension assays show that tCpTP is an efficient substrate for Kod‐RI, a DNA‐dependent TNA polymerase developed to explore the functional properties of TNA byin vitroselection. Fidelity studies reveal that a cycle of TNA synthesis and reverse transcription occurs with 99.9% overall fidelity when tCpTP and 7‐deaza‐tGTP are present as TNA substrates. This result expands the toolkit of TNA building blocks available forin vitroselection.
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DNA Functionality with Photoswitchable Hydrazone Cytidine**
Abstract A new family of hydrazone modified cytidine phosphoramidite building block was synthesized and incorporated into oligodeoxynucleotides to construct photoswitchable DNA strands. TheE‐Zisomerization triggered by the irradiation of blue light with a wavelength of 450 nm was investigated and confirmed by1H NMR spectroscopy and HPLC in the contexts of both nucleoside and oligodeoxynucleotide. The light activatedZform isomer of this hydrazone‐cytidine with a six‐member intramolecular hydrogen bond was found to inhibit DNA synthesis in the primer extension model by usingBstDNA polymerase. In addition, the hydrazone modification caused the misincorporation of dATP together with dGTP into the growing DNA strand with similar selectivity, highlighting a potential G to A mutation. This work provides a novel functional DNA building block and an additional molecular tool that has potential chemical biology and biomedicinal applications to control DNA synthesis and DNA‐enzyme interactions using the cell friendly blue light irradiation.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1715234
- PAR ID:
- 10226990
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Chemistry – A European Journal
- Volume:
- 27
- Issue:
- 32
- ISSN:
- 0947-6539
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 8372-8379
- Size(s):
- p. 8372-8379
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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