Surface imprinting polymers for the recognition of nucleotides

A highly selective polymer has been prepared for the selective separation of nucleotides by the surface imprinting polymerization. A dialkyl quaternary ammonium chloride was effective as the functional molecule for recognizing the difference in the structure of nucleotides. Adsorptive behavior of the ionic species of the structural analogues, inosine-5'-monophosphoric acid (IMP) and guanosine-5'-monophosphoric acid (GMP), could be controlled by changing the pH condition. Surface imprinting polymers were prepared under different pH conditions; pH 9.0 and pH 8.5. The IMP-imprinted polymers exhibited higher template effect for IMP than for a structural analogue, GMP. A reference polymer prepared without the imprint molecule neither exhibit any selectivity to IMP nor to GMP. The adsorption behavior was quantitatively evaluated by the binding constants for the IMP-imprinted polymer. The imprinting polymer was found to recognize a small structural difference in nucleotides.