There is a common interest for studying xeno-nucleic acid systems in the fields of synthetic biology and the origin of life, in particular, those with an engineered backbone and possessing novel properties. Along this line, we have investigated xylonucleic acid (XyloNA) containing a potentially prebiotic xylose sugar (a 3′-epimer of ribose) in its backbone. Herein, we report for the first time the synthesis of four XyloNA nucleotide building blocks and the assembly of XyloNA oligonucleotides containing all the natural nucleobases. A detailed investigation of pairing and structural properties of XyloNAs in comparison to DNA/RNA has been performed by thermal UV-melting, CD, and solution state NMR spectroscopic studies. XyloNA has been shown to be an orthogonal self-pairing system which adopts a slightly right-handed extended helical geometry. Our study on one hand, provides understanding for superior structure-function (-pairing) properties of DNA/RNA over XyloNA for selection as an informational polymer in the prebiotic context, while on the other hand, finds potential of XyloNA as an orthogonal genetic system for application in synthetic biology.
在合成
生物学和生命起源领域,研究异种
核酸系统,特别是那些具有工程骨架和新特性的异种
核酸系统有着共同的兴趣。沿着这一思路,我们研究了在其骨架中含有潜在益生
木糖糖(
核糖的 3′-表聚体)的异种
核酸(XyloNA)。在此,我们首次报道了四种 XyloNA
核苷酸构件的合成以及含有所有
天然核碱基的 XyloNA 寡
核苷酸的组装。通过热紫外熔融、CD 和溶液态核磁共振光谱研究,我们详细调查了 XyloNA 与 DNA/RNA 相比的配对和结构特性。研究表明,XyloNA 是一种正交自配对系统,它采用略带右旋的扩展螺旋几何结构。我们的研究一方面使人们了解到 DNA/RNA 比 XyloNA 具有更优越的结构-功能(配对)特性,可在前
生物背景下被选为信息
聚合物,另一方面发现了 XyloNA 作为正交遗传系统在合成
生物学中的应用潜力。