Enzymatic synthesis of ligand-bearing DNAs for metal-mediated base pairing utilising a template-independent polymerase

Abstract

We have developed a novel method to synthesise artificial ligand-bearing DNAs utilising a template-independent DNA polymerase. Hydroxypyridone ligand-bearing nucleotides (H) were successively appended to DNA primers by the enzyme. The resulting strands, tailed with H nucleotides, formed Cu^II-mediated metallo-DNA duplexes through the formation of metal-mediated artificial base pairs (H–Cu^II–H).