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Synthetic biology

Six pack and stack

Nature Chemistry volume 7, pages 617–619 (2015)Cite this article

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A pair of artificial DNA bases have now been shown to adopt an edge-to-edge geometry in DNA which is similar that found in Watson–Crick base pairing. Aptamers containing these bases have also been shown to bind more strongly to a target than those developed using only the four naturally occurring bases.

The Watson–Crick base pairing of naturally occurring nucleotides has long been a subject of fascination amongst chemists, in that it represents one of only a few examples of extensive isosteric and isomorphic supramolecular chemistries1. It is not clear, however, whether any reliable genetic system would require these extensive isosteric and isomorphic properties as there have been few opportunities to examine whether the uniqueness of Watson–Crick base pairing is a result of chemical or biological rarity: that is, whether there are few such systems within the space of chemical compounds, or many such systems, all of which could have been equally successful if biology had happened to chance upon them. Two recent papers2,3 published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, now provide insights into whether other genetic alphabets may be equally pliable.

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Figure 1: Comparison of the structures of the expanded genetic alphabets.

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  1. Cheulhee Jung and Andrew D. Ellington are in the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Texas at Austin, University Station A4800, Austin, Texas 78712-0165, USA

    Cheulhee Jung & Andrew D. Ellington

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  1. Cheulhee Jung
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  2. Andrew D. Ellington
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Correspondence to Andrew D. Ellington.

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Jung, C., Ellington, A. Six pack and stack. Nature Chem 7, 617–619 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2313

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