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Sequence-Selective Formation of Synthetic H-Bonded Duplexes

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Stross, AE 
Nunez-Villanueva, Diego  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1005-1464
Hunter, CA 

Abstract

Oligomers equipped with a sequence of phenol and pyridine N-oxide groups form duplexes via H-bonding interactions between these recognition units. Reductive amination chemistry was used to synthesize all possible 3-mer sequences: AAA, AAD, ADA, DAA, ADD, DAD, DDA, and DDD. Pairwise interactions between the oligomers were investigated using NMR titration and dilution experiments in toluene. The measured association constants vary by 3 orders of magnitude (102 to 105 M–1). Antiparallel sequence-complementary oligomers generally form more stable complexes than mismatched duplexes. Mismatched duplexes that have an excess of H-bond donors are stabilized by the interaction of two phenol donors with one pyridine N-oxide acceptor. Oligomers that have a H-bond donor and acceptor on the ends of the chain can fold to form intramolecular H-bonds in the free state. The 1,3-folding equilibrium competes with duplex formation and lowers the stability of duplexes involving these sequences. As a result, some of the mismatch duplexes are more stable than some of the sequence-complementary duplexes. However, the most stable mismatch duplexes contain DDD and compete with the most stable sequence-complementary duplex, AAA·DDD, so in mixtures that contain all eight sequences, sequence-complementary duplexes dominate. Even higher fidelity sequence selectivity can be achieved if alternating donor–acceptor sequences are avoided.

Description

Keywords

0306 Physical Chemistry (incl. Structural)

Journal Title

Journal of the American Chemical Society

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0002-7863
1520-5126

Volume Title

139

Publisher

American Chemical Society
Sponsorship
European Research Council (320539)
EPSRC (EP/J008044/4)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/K039520/1)
We thank the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/J008044/2) and European Research Council (ERC-2012-AdG 320539-duplex) for funding.