An Isosteric and Fluorescent DNA Base Pair Consisting of 4-aminophthalimide and 2,4-diaminopyrimidine as C-Nucleosides.

A 13mer DNA duplex containing the artificial 4-aminophthalimide:2,4-diaminopyrimidine (4AP:DAP) base pair in the central position was characterized by optical and NMR spectroscopy. The fluorescence of 4AP in the duplex has a large Stokes shift of Δλ=124 nm and a quantum yield of Φ =24 %. The NMR structure shows that two interstrand hydrogen bonds are formed and confirms the artificial base pairing.

Scope and Limitations of Typical Copper-Free Bioorthogonal Reactions with DNA: Reactive 2'-Deoxyuridine Triphosphates for Postsynthetic Labeling.

Four triphosphates of 2'-deoxyuridine that carried the following bioorthogonally reactive groups were synthesized by organic-chemical methods. Two triphosphates with tetrazines and one with a cyclopropene moiety were designed for Diels-Alder reactions with inverse electron demand, and one triphosphate with a tetrazole core was designed for the "photoclick" cycloaddition. These triphosphates were not only successfully applied for oligonucleotide preparation by standard DNA polymerases, including Hemo KlenTaq, Vent, and Deep Vent, but also bypassed for full length primer extension products.

Copper-Free Postsynthetic Labeling of Nucleic Acids by Means of Bioorthogonal Reactions.

Postsynthetic modification of nucleic acids has the advantage that the chemical development of only a few building blocks is necessary, each bearing a chosen reactive functional group that is applicable to its reactive counterpart for a variety of different labeling types. The reactive group is either linked to phosphoramidites for chemical synthesis on solid phase or attached to nucleoside triphosphates for application in primer extension experiments and PCR. Chemoselectivity is required for this strategy, together with bioorthogonality to perform these labelings in living cells or even organisms.