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Updated: Jun 23, 2026

CD Spectroscopy to Study DNA-Protein Interactions
Published on: February 10, 2022
Stable cyclohexyl-phenyl recognition in the center of a DNA duplex
Marco Kaufmann1, Michael Gisler, Christian J Leumann
1Departement für Chemie und Biochemie, Universität Bern, Freiestrasse 3, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Even saturated carbocycles are compatible with Watson-Crick pairing, as shown by the incorporation of phenylcyclohexyl-C-nucleoside pairs into the center of a DNA double helix (see picture). The increase in duplex stability arises from cyclohexyl/phenyl CH/pi interactions. This makes the system an interesting scaffold for studying hydrophobic interactions and allows for the incorporation of additional molecular entities into the double helix.
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