A Novel DNA Helical Wire Containing Hg^II -Mediated T:T and T:G Pairs

Numerous applications of metal-mediated base pairs (metallo-base-pairs) to nucleic acid based nanodevices and genetic code expansion have been extensively studied. Many of these metallo-base-pairs are formed in DNA and RNA duplexes containing Watson-Crick base pairs. Recently, a crystal structure of a metal-DNA nanowire with an uninterrupted one-dimensional silver array was reported. We now report the crystal structure of a novel DNA helical wire containing Hg^II -mediated T:T and T:G base pairs and water-mediated C:C base pairs. The Hg-DNA wire does not contain any Watson-Crick base pairs. Crystals of the Hg-DNA wire, which is the first DNA wire structure driven by Hg^II ions, were obtained by mixing the short oligonucleotide d(TTTGC) and Hg^II ions. This study demonstrates the potential of metallo-DNA to form various structural components that can be used for functional nanodevices.