Backbone-free duplex-stacked monomer nucleic acids exhibiting Watson-Crick selectivity

Area of Science:

• Biochemistry
• Materials Science
• Physical Chemistry

Background:

• Nucleic acids (NA) are fundamental to life, typically existing as polymers.
• Understanding NA self-assembly is crucial for origins of life research and nanotechnology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the self-assembly behavior of nucleic acid mononucleotide triphosphates (NTPs).
• To determine if polymer-free NTPs can form ordered structures mimicking biological NA.

Main Methods:

• Studying aqueous solutions of dNTPs and rNTPs at high concentrations and low temperatures.
• Observing phase transitions and liquid crystal ordering using physical chemistry techniques.

Main Results:

• Nucleic acid mononucleotide triphosphates self-assemble into chromonic columnar liquid crystal phases.
• This polymer-free assembly exhibits duplex stacking of base pairs and Watson-Crick selectivity.
• Duplex columnar ordering is most stable for adenosine-thymine (A-T) and cytosine-guanine (C-G) combinations.

Conclusions:

• Nucleic acid monomers can spontaneously form ordered, biologically relevant structures without polymerization.
• This finding offers insights into pre-biotic chemistry and potential applications in molecular self-assembly.