title: Nucleoside triphosphates--building blocks for the modification of nucleic acids.
abstract: Nucleoside triphosphates are moldable entities that can easily be functionalized at various locations. The enzymatic polymerization of these modified triphosphate analogues represents a versatile platform for the facile and mild generation of (highly) functionalized nucleic acids. Numerous modified triphosphates have been utilized in a broad palette of applications spanning from DNA-tagging and -labeling to the generation of catalytic nucleic acids. This review will focus on the recent progress made in the synthesis of modified nucleoside triphosphates as well as on the understanding of the mechanisms underlying their polymerase acceptance. In addition, the usefulness of chemically altered dNTPs in SELEX and related methods of in vitro selection will be highlighted, with a particular emphasis on the generation of modified DNA enzymes (DNAzymes) and DNA-based aptamers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Bern, Freiestrasse 3, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland. hollenstein@dcb.unibe.ch
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hollenstein
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D004247:DNA / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry; D018736:DNA Adducts / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry; D021881:DNA, Catalytic; D004259:DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase / Q000737:chemistry; D003854:Deoxyribonucleotides / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D009711:Nucleotides / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry; D011485:Protein Binding; D052156:SELEX Aptamer Technique
chemical_list: D018736:DNA Adducts; D021881:DNA, Catalytic; D003854:Deoxyribonucleotides; D009711:Nucleotides; D004247:DNA; D004259:DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase