title: PNA hybridizes to complementary oligonucleotides obeying the Watson-Crick hydrogen-bonding rules.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Organic Chemistry, H. C. Orsted Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Egholm
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Buchardt
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Christensen
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Behrens
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Freier
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Driver
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Berg
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Norden
authors.forename: P E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Nielsen
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D003596:Cytosine / Q000737:chemistry; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D005998:Glycine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000737:chemistry; D006860:Hydrogen Bonding; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides / Q000737:chemistry*; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry; D013816:Thermodynamics; D013941:Thymine / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides; C028791:N-(2-aminoethyl)glycine; D012313:RNA; D003596:Cytosine; D004247:DNA; D013941:Thymine; D005998:Glycine