High-Resolution Crystal Structure of a Silver(I)-RNA Hybrid Duplex Containing Watson-Crick-like CSilver(I)C Metallo-Base Pairs
Kondo, J., Tada, Y., Dairaku, T., Saneyoshi, H., Okamoto, I., Tanaka, Y., Ono, A.(2015) Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 54: 13323-13326
- PubMed: 26448329 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201507894
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
5AY2, 5AY3, 5AY4 - PubMed Abstract: 
Metallo-base pairs have been extensively studied for applications in nucleic acid-based nanodevices and genetic code expansion. Metallo-base pairs composed of natural nucleobases are attractive because nanodevices containing natural metallo-base pairs can be easily prepared from commercially available sources. Previously, we have reported a crystal structure of a DNA duplex containing T-Hg(II)-T base pairs. Herein, we have determined a high-resolution crystal structure of the second natural metallo-base pair between pyrimidine bases C-Ag(I)-C formed in an RNA duplex. One Ag(I) occupies the center between two cytosines and forms a C-Ag(I)-C base pair through N3-Ag(I)-N3 linear coordination. The C-Ag(I)-C base pair formation does not disturb the standard A-form conformation of RNA. Since the C-Ag(I)-C base pair is structurally similar to the canonical Watson-Crick base pairs, it can be a useful building block for structure-based design and fabrication of nucleic acid-based nanodevices.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Department of Materials and Life Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Sophia University, 7-1 Kioi-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8554 (Japan). j.kondo@sophia.ac.jp.