title: Second generation silver(I)-mediated imidazole base pairs.
abstract: The imidazole-Ag(I)-imidazole base pair is one of the best-investigated artificial metal-mediated base pairs. We show here that its stability can be further improved by formally replacing the imidazole moiety by a 2-methylimidazole or 4-methylimidazole moiety. A comparison of the thermal stability of several double helices shows that the addition of one equivalent of Ag(I) leads to a 50% larger increase in the melting temperature when a DNA duplex with methylated imidazole nucleosides is applied. This significant effect can likely be attributed to a better steric shielding of the metal ion within the metal-mediated base pair.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Anorganische und Analytische Chemie, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Corrensstr. 28/30, 48149 Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hensel
authors.affiliation: Institut für Anorganische und Analytische Chemie, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Corrensstr. 28/30, 48149 Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Megger
authors.affiliation: Institut für Anorganische und Analytische Chemie, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Corrensstr. 28/30, 48149 Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Kristina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schweizer
authors.affiliation: Institut für Anorganische und Analytische Chemie, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Corrensstr. 28/30, 48149 Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Müller
keywords: DNA; bioinorganic chemistry; imidazole; metal-mediated base pairs; nucleic acids; nucleosides