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Expanding the Toolbox of Photoswitches for DNA Nanotechnology Using Arylazopyrazoles
Author(s) -
Adam Volker,
Prusty Deepak K.,
Centola Mathias,
Škugor Marko,
Hannam Jeffrey S.,
Valero Julián,
Klöckner Bernhard,
Famulok Michael
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201705500
Subject(s) - photoisomerization , photoswitch , azobenzene , nanotechnology , dna , dna nanotechnology , molecular switch , chemistry , materials science , isomerization , photochemistry , molecule , organic chemistry , biochemistry , catalysis
Photoregulation is among the most promising tools for development of dynamic DNA nanosystems, due to its high spatiotemporal precision, biocompatibility, and ease of use. So far, azobenzene and its derivatives have shown high potential in photocontrolling DNA duplex hybridization by light‐dependent photoisomerization. Despite many recent advances, obtaining sufficiently high photoswitching efficiency under conditions more suitable for work with DNA nanostructures are challenging. Here we introduce a pair of arylazopyrazoles as new photoswitches for efficient and reversible control of DNA hybridization achieved even at room temperature with a low number of required modifications. Their photophysical properties in the native state and in DNA strands result in near‐quantitative isomerization rates by irradiation with UV and orange light. To demonstrate the applicability of these photoswitches, we have successfully applied one of them to open and close a DNA hairpin by light at room temperature.