Covalently Mercurated 6-Phenylcarbazole Residues Promote Hybridization of Triplex-Forming Oligonucleotides

Homothymidine DNA oligonucleotides bearing a 3'-terminal 6-phenyl-9H-carbazole C-nucleoside, mercurated at position 1, 8 or both, were synthesized and tested for their potential to form triple helices with homoadenine ⋅ homothymine duplexes. The monomercurated triplex-forming oligonucleotides favored hybridization with fully matched double helices and in some cases considerable increase of the melting temperature could be attributed to Hoogsteen-type Hg(II)-mediated interaction with the homoadenine strand. The dimercurated one, on the other hand, favored hybridization with double helices placing a homo mispair opposite to the carbazole residue, suggesting that simultaneous coordination of each of the two Hg(II) ions to a different strand is only possible in the absence of competition from Watson-Crick base pairing.