Megger Dominik A, Megger Nicole, Müller Jens
University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
Met Ions Life Sci. 2012;10:295-317. doi: 10.1007/978-94-007-2172-2_11.
Metal-mediated base pairs are transition metal complexes formed from complementary nucleosides within nucleic acid double helices. Instead of relying on hydrogen bonds, they are stabilized by coordinative bonds. The nucleosides acting as ligands do not necessarily have to be artificial. In fact, several examples are known of naturally occurring nucleobases (e.g., thymine, cytosine) capable of forming stable metal-mediated base pairs that are highly selective towards certain metal ions. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of metal-mediated base pairs formed from natural nucleosides or from closely related artificial nucleosides that are pyrimidine or purine derivatives. It addresses the different strategies that lead to the development of these base pairs. The article focuses on structural models for metal-mediated base pairs, their experimental characterization within a nucleic acid, and on their possible applications.
金属介导的碱基对是由核酸双螺旋内互补核苷形成的过渡金属配合物。它们不是依靠氢键，而是通过配位键来稳定。充当配体的核苷不一定必须是人工合成的。事实上，已知有几个天然存在的核碱基（如胸腺嘧啶、胞嘧啶）能够形成对某些金属离子具有高度选择性的稳定金属介导碱基对的例子。本章全面概述了由天然核苷或与之密切相关的作为嘧啶或嘌呤衍生物的人工核苷形成的金属介导碱基对。它阐述了导致这些碱基对发展的不同策略。本文重点关注金属介导碱基对的结构模型、它们在核酸中的实验表征以及它们的可能应用。
