Strand Invasion of Extended, Mixed-Sequence B-DNA by γPNAs

摘要

Peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) are a promising class of nucleic acid mimics developed in the last two decades in which the naturally occurring sugar phosphodiester backbone has been replaced by achiral N-(2-aminoethyl)glycine units (Scheme 1A). In addition to their ability in hybridizing to cDNA or RNA strands, PNAs can invade double-stranded DNA. Strand invasion occurs predominantly in two modes, depending on the target sequence: through Watson-Crick base pairing to form a 1:1 PNA/DNA complex or in combination with Hoogsteen base pairing to form a 2:1 complex.