Design, synthesis, and analysis of conformationally constrained nucleic acids
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Updated: Oct 26, 2026

Analyzing and Building Nucleic Acid Structures with 3DNA
Published on: April 26, 2013
1Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48109, USA. gglick@umich.edu
Abstract:
In this review I discuss straightforward and general methods to modify nucleic acid structure with disulfide cross-links. A motivating factor in developing this chemistry was the notion that disulfide bonds would be excellent tools to probe the structure, dynamics, thermodynamics, folding, and function of DNA and RNA, much in the way that cystine cross-links have been used to study proteins. The chemistry described has been used to synthesize disulfide cross-linked hairpins and duplexes, higher order structures like triplexes, nonground-state conformations, and tRNAs. Since the cross-links form quantitatively by mild air oxidation and do not perturb either secondary or tertiary structure, this modification should prove quite useful for the study of nucleic acids.
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