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Stable Hairpin Structures Formed by Xylose‐Based Nucleic Acids
Author(s) -
Mattelaer CharlesAlexandre,
Maiti Mohitosh,
Smets Laurent,
Maiti Munmun,
Schepers Guy,
Mattelaer HenriPhilippe,
Rosemeyer Helmut,
Herdewijn Piet,
Lescrinier Eveline
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
chembiochem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.05
H-Index - 126
eISSN - 1439-7633
pISSN - 1439-4227
DOI - 10.1002/cbic.202000803
Subject(s) - nucleic acid , duplex (building) , chemistry , nucleic acid structure , stem loop , circular dichroism , dna , thermal stability , biophysics , rna , stereochemistry , biochemistry , biology , organic chemistry , gene
Xenobiology explores synthetic nucleic acid polymers as alternative carriers of genetic information to expand the central dogma. The xylo‐ and deoxyxylo‐nucleic acids (XyNA and dXyNA), containing 3’ epimers of riboses and deoxyriboses, are considered to be potential candidates for an orthogonal system. In this study, thermal and spectroscopic analyses show that XyNA and dXyNA form stable hairpins. The dXyNA hairpin structure determined by NMR spectroscopy contains a flexible loop that locks the stem into a stable ladder‐like duplex with marginal right‐handed helicity. The reduced flexibility of the dXyNA duplex observed in the stem of the hairpin demonstrates that folding of dXyNA yields more stable structures described so far.