Chemistry Reference
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9
Artificial DNA Directed toward
Synthetic Metallofoldamers
Guido H. Clever 1 and Mitsuhiko Shionoya 2
1 Institute for Inorganic Chemistry, Georg-August University G¨ttingen, Germany
2 Department of Chemistry, University of Tokyo, Japan
9.1 Introduction
9.1.1 Oligonucleotides are Natural Foldamers
Most biopolymers such as proteins and oligosaccharides possess the ability to fold into
secondary (and higher) structural motifs in a predetermined way. Whereas it is generally
acknowledged that polypeptides can fold into a variety of structures such as b-sheets,
barrels and a-helices depending on the underlying amino acid sequence, deoxy-
ribonucleic acid (DNA) is most commonly known for adopting a right-handed double
helical structure termed B-DNA. Indeed, this B-DNA conformation is believed to be the
predominant form adopted by DNA in the natural environment, but it is by far not the only
type of secondary structure known in the context of oligonucleotides [1,2]. Figure 9.1
shows the structures of the three most prominent DNA secondary structures known
today and summarizes a few of their main characteristic properties. A multitude of further
structures, parameters and information on the conditions when to expect a certain type of
secondary structure are described elsewhere [3] and will not be the focus of this section.
The molecular structures of the oligonucleotide double-strands reveal that all forms
show a helical twist along the axis rather than adopting the shape of a straight ladder.
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