Burns, JR;
Wood, JW;
Stulz, E;
(2020)
A Porphyrin-DNA Chiroptical Molecular Ruler With Base Pair Resolution.
Frontiers in Chemistry
, 8
, Article 113. 10.3389/fchem.2020.00113.
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Abstract
DNA-based molecular rulers enable scientists to determine important parameters across biology, from the measurement of protein binding interactions, to the study of membrane dynamics in cells. However, existing rulers can suffer from poor nanometre resolution due to the flexible nature of linkers used to tether to the DNA framework. We aimed to overcome this problem using zinc and free-base porphyrin chromophores attached via short and rigid acetylene linkers. This connectivity enables the distance and angle between the porphyrins to be fine-tuned along the DNA scaffold. The porphyrins undergo favorable energy transfer and chiral exciton coupling interactions to act as highly sensitive molecular ruler probes. To validate the system, we monitored the detection of small changes in DNA structure upon intercalation of ethidium bromide. CD spectroscopy showed the porphyrins undergo highly sensitive changes in excitation coupling to facilitate base pair resolution of the novel system.
Type: | Article |
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Title: | A Porphyrin-DNA Chiroptical Molecular Ruler With Base Pair Resolution |
Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
DOI: | 10.3389/fchem.2020.00113 |
Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2020.00113 |
Language: | English |
Additional information: | © 2020 Burns, Wood and Stulz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Chemistry |
URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10109292 |
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