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. 1998 Jun 1;26(11):2735–2739. doi: 10.1093/nar/26.11.2735

Inhibition of PNA triplex formation by N4-benzoylated cytosine.

L Christensen 1, H F Hansen 1, T Koch 1, P E Nielsen 1
PMCID: PMC147602  PMID: 9592162

Abstract

The synthesis of N-((N4-(benzoyl)cytosine-1-yl)acetyl)- N -(2-Boc-aminoethyl)glycine (CBz) and the incorporation of this monomer into PNA oligomers are described. A single CBzresidue within a 10mer homopyrimidine PNA is capable of switching the preferred binding mode from a parallel to an antiparallel orientation when targeting a deoxyribonucleotide sequence at neutral pH. The resulting complex has a thermal stability equal to that of the corresponding PNA-DNA duplex, indicative of a strong destabilization of Hoogsteen strand PNA binding due to steric interference by the benzoyl moieties. Accordingly, incorporation of the CBz residue into linked PNAs (bis-PNAs) results in greatly reduced thermal stability of the formed PNA:DNA complexes. Thus, incorporation of the CBz monomer could eliminate the stability bias of triplex-forming sequences in PNA used in hybridization arrays and combinatorial library formats. Furthermore, it is shown that the benzoyl moiety does not severely interfere with Watson-Crick hydrogen bonding, thereby presenting an interesting route for novel cytosine modifications.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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