Metal arrays, artificial DNAs

K. Tanaka, A. Tengeiji, T. Kato, N. Toyama, M. Shionoya, A Discrete Self-Assembled Metal Array in Artificial DNA , Science, 299, 1212 (2003)... 

Supramolecular Metal Arrays on Artificial Metallo-DNAs and Peptides... 

Recently, we have demonstrated that biopolymers such as DNA and peptides can be chemically reconstructed, and thereby act as template molecules for homogeneous or heterogeneous metal arrays in a programmable manner. This chapter covers our recent approaches to metal arrays on artificial DNAs and cyclic peptides. 

SUPRAMOLECULAR METAL ARRAYS ON ARTIFICIAL METALLO-DNAs AND PEPTIDES... 

New type of metal binding like artificial DNA has been taken much attention by many researchers. The artificial DNA consists of the analog of the DNA base (sometimes accompanied with metal cation), sugar and phosphoric acid. Artificial DNA can connect to the natural DNA so that it is possible to array metal cations in artificial DNA duplex by self-assemble. Moreover, in 2006, Miyake et al. succeeded in making Hg(II) binded to a thymine-thymine (T-T) mismatch, which resulted in a [T-Hg(II)-T] complex [16]. 

Recently, an artificial DNA, which consists of a DNA-like base sugar, and phosphoric acids, has taken much attention [38]. The artificial DNA has a selectivity of metal ions, which are captured by DNA-like bases, so that the metal ions could be arrayed hierarchically. In fact, many artificial DNAs with various metal ions have been synthesized and reported [39-41], In 2004, Tanaka succeeded in arraying five [H-Cu(II)-H] (H hydroxypyridone) into a DNA duplex [42,43]. Although details of the structure by NMR or X-ray experiments have not yet been available, they revealed that the distance between the copper ions are 3.7 0.1A with electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) experiments at 1.5 K. Since the available structural information by the experiments is limited, the computational chemistry might contribute to get a deep understanding of the structure of the artificial DNA. 

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