Facile solid-phase synthesis of PNA–peptide conjugates using pNZ-protected PNA monomers

PNA–peptide conjugates are useful molecular tools in chemical biology and biotechnology. Although several approaches have been developed to synthesize PNA–peptide conjugates, more efficient methods are still needed. In this report a new pNZ (p-nitrobenzyloxycarbonyl)/bis-Boc strategy was developed as an alternative backbone/nucleobase protecting group method. The mild deprotection conditions of pNZ group and pNZ's full orthogonality with Fmoc solid-phase synthesis enable a new dimension of synthetic flexibility and practicality to generate versatile PNA–peptide conjugates.