Abstract
Heterochiral DNA with hydrogen-bonded and silver-mediated base pairs have been constructed using complementary strands with nucleosides with α-d or β-d configuration. Anomeric phosphoramidites were employed to assemble the oligonucleotides. According to the T(m) values and thermodynamic data, the duplex stability of the heterochiral duplexes was similar to that of homochiral DNA, but mismatch discrimination was better in heterochiral DNA. Replacement of purines by 7-deazapurines resulted in stable parallel duplexes, thereby confirming Watson-Crick-type base pairing. When cytosine was facing cytosine, thymine or adenine residues, duplex DNA formed silver-mediated base pairs in the presence of silver ions. Although the CD spectra of single strands with α-d configuration display mirror-like shapes to those with the β-d configuration, the CD spectra of the hydrogen-bonded duplexes and those with a limited number of silver pairs show a B-type double helix almost indistinguishable from natural DNA. Nonmelting silver ion-DNA complexes with entirely different CD spectra were generated when the number of silver ions was equal to the number of base pairs.