Anomeric 2'-Deoxycytidines and Silver Ions: Hybrid Base Pairs with Greatly Enhanced Stability and Efficient DNA...

α-d-Nucleosides are rare in nature but can develop fascinating properties when incorporated into DNA. This work reports on the first silver-mediated base pair constructed from two anomeric nucleosides: α-dC and β-dC. The hybrid base pair was integrated into the DNA and DNA/RNA double helix. A 12-mer duplex with α-dC and β-dC pair exhibits a higher thermal stability (T_m =43 °C) than that incorporating the β-dC-Ag⁺ -β-dC homo pair (T_m =34 °C). Furthermore, α-dC shows excellent mismatch discrimination for DNA single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). All four SNPs were identified on the basis of large T_m value differences measured in the presence of silver ions. High resolution melting was not required.