Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 10, 2026

Self-Assembly of Gamma-Modified Peptide Nucleic Acids into Complex Nanostructures in Organic Solvent Mixtures
Published on: June 26, 2020
Strand invasion of mixed-sequence B-DNA by acridine-linked, gamma-peptide nucleic acid (gamma-PNA)
Srinivas Rapireddy1, Gaofei He, Subhadeep Roy
1Department of Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University, 4400 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA.
Abstract:
Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) is a synthetic mimic of DNA and RNA that can recognize double-stranded B-DNA through direct Watson-Crick base-pairing. Although promising, PNA recognition is presently limited to mostly purine- and pyrimidine-rich targets, because mixed-sequence PNA, in general, does not have sufficient binding free energy to invade B-DNA. In this Article, we show that conformationally preorganized gamma-peptide nucleic acid (gamma-PNA) containing an acridine moiety covalently linked at the C-terminus can invade mixed-sequence B-DNA in a sequence-specific manner. Recognition occurs through direct Watson-Crick base-pairing. This finding is significant because it demonstrates that the same principles that guide the recognition of single-stranded DNA and RNA can also be applied to double-stranded B-DNA.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Maxam-Gilbert Sequencing
Challenges of the Maxam-Gilbert Method
The...
Single-Strand DNA Binding Proteins
Homologous Recombination
piRNA - Piwi-interacting RNAs
Sanger Sequencing
Next-generation Sequencing
Next-Generation Sequencing Methods
Although all next-generation methods use different technologies, they all share a set of standard features.

