Selenium Atom-Specific Mutagenesis (SAM) for Crystallography, DNA Nanostructure Design, and Other Applications - DNA Nanotechnology: From Structure to Function - page 27

Chapter 3
Selenium Atom-Specific Mutagenesis (SAM)
for Crystallography, DNA Nanostructure
Design, and Other Applications

Sibo Jiang, Huiyan Sun, and Zhen Huang

Abstract Since oxygen and selenium are in the same elemental family, the
replacement of oxygen in nucleic acids with selenium does not significantly
change the local as well as overall structures, which preserves the nucleic acid
structures in a predictable manner. Furthermore, the valuable differences in chemical
and electronic properties enable various functions and applications, including
crystallization, phase determination, and high-resolution structure determination
in X-ray crystallography, base-pair high fidelity, nanotechnology, and molecu-
lar imaging. This chapter briefly introduces the selenium-modified nucleic acids
(SeNA), the selenium atom-specific mutagenesis (SAM), and their potentials in
DNA nanotechnology.

Keywords Atom-specific mutagenesis • Selenium derivatization of DNA and
RNA • Nucleic acid modification • DNA and RNA nanotechnology

3.1 Introduction: From Nucleic Acid Biology

to Nanotechnology

Nucleic acids, including DNA and RNA, play critical role in storing, transcribing,
and translating genetic information. Since DNA was identified as the master
blueprint of life [ 1 ] six decades ago, nucleic acid-related research areas have drawn
tremendous attentions from chemistry, biology, medicine, and other life sciences.
The rapid advances in nucleic acid research are enormous, along with the invention
of many new technologies, which bring us more insights into the structures and

S. Jiang • H. Sun • Z. Huang ( )
Department of Chemistry, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA
e-mail: [e-mail]