Binding of Eu(III) to 1,2-hydroxypyridinone-modified peptide nucleic acids.

Substitution of a nucleobase pair with a pair of 1,2-hydroxypyridinone (1,2-HOPO) ligands in the center of a 10-base-pair peptide nucleic acid (PNA) duplex provides a strong binding site for Eu(III) as evidenced by UV thermal melting curves, UV titrations, and luminescence spectroscopy. Eu(III) excitation spectra and luminescence lifetime data are consistent with Eu(III) bound to both 1,2 HOPO ligands in a PNA-HOPO duplex as the major species present in solution.