PNA hybridizes to complementary oligonucleotides obeying the Watson-Crick hydrogen-bonding rules.
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.
Egholm
M
M
Department of Organic Chemistry, H. C. Orsted Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Buchardt
O
O
Christensen
L
L
Behrens
C
C
Freier
S M
SM
Driver
D A
DA
Berg
R H
RH
Kim
S K
SK
Norden
B
B
Nielsen
P E
PE
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
D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides; C028791:N-(2-aminoethyl)glycine; D012313:RNA; D003596:Cytosine; D004247:DNA; D013941:Thymine; D005998:Glycine