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Published on: July 6, 2016
Acceleration of Long-Range Photoinduced Electron Transfer through DNA by Hydroxyquinolines as Artificial Base Pairs
Effi Bätzner1, Yu Liang2, Caroline Schweigert2
1Institute of Organic Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Fritz-Haber-Weg 6, 76131 Karlsruhe (Germany).
Abstract:
The C-nucleoside based on the hydroxyquinoline ligand (Hq) is complementary to itself and forms stable Hq-Hq pairs in double-stranded DNA. These artificial Hq-Hq pairs may serve as artificial electron carriers for long-range photoinduced electron transfer in DNA, as elucidated by a combination of gel electrophoretic analysis of irradiated samples and time-resolved transient absorption spectroscopy. For this study, the Hq-Hq pair was combined with a DNA-based donor-acceptor system consisting of 6-N,N-dimethylaminopyrene conjugated to 2'-deoxyuridine as photoinducible electron donor, and methyl viologen attached to the 2'-position of uridine as electron acceptor. The Hq radical anion was identified in the time-resolved measurements and strand cleavage products support its role as an intermediate charge carrier. Hence, the Hq-Hq pair significantly enhances the electron hopping capability of DNA compared to natural DNA bases over long distances while keeping the self-assembly properties as the most attractive feature of DNA as a supramolecular architecture.
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