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Updated: Aug 17, 2025

Sequence-specific Labeling of Nucleic Acids and Proteins with Methyltransferases and Cofactor Analogues
Published on: November 22, 2014
CuII-mediated stabilisation of DNA duplexes bearing consecutive ethenoadenine lesions and its application to a
Silpa Chandran Rajasree1, Yusuke Takezawa1, Mitsuhiko Shionoya1
1Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan. takezawa@chem.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp.
Abstract:
Metal-mediated nucleobase pairing can play a central role in the expression of metal-responsive DNA functions. We report the CuII-mediated stabilisation of DNA duplexes bearing damaged nucleobases, 1,N6-ethenoadenine (εA), as metal-binding sites, which was utilised to construct a metal-responsive DNAzyme. Consecutive incorporation of three or more εA-εA mismatch pairs allowed for CuII-dependent significant duplex stabilisation through metal-mediated εA-CuII-εA base pairing. Subsequently, a split DNAzyme with three εA-CuII-εA base pairs was strategically designed. The activity of the εA-modified DNAzyme was enhanced by 5.3-fold upon addition of CuII ions. This study demonstrates the utility of εA lesions for building metal-responsive DNA architectures.
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