Nucleic acids have emerged as promising building blocks for functional materials, but their sensitivity to nucleases and the lack of functional side chains still pose major challenges in applications. In this talk, will describe the enzymatic synthesis of a click handle-modified xenobiotic nucleic acid 2’-fluoro-2’-deoxyarabanose nucleic acid (cmFANA). The cmFANA nucleotide triphosphate can serve as an efficient substrate in polymerase-mediated, DNA-templated primer extension. The resulting cmFANA polymers are resistant to nuclease-mediated degradation, and can be efficiently modified by azide-modified functional motifs. We anticipate that the cmFANA system can become a general programmable synthetic genetic polymer platform for a variety of applications spanning affinity reagents, molecular catalysts, and functional nanostructures.

Tricking the enzyme into making polymers: Enzymatic synthesis and post-polymerization functionalization of a xenobiotic nucleic acid polymer

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ACS Fall 2022

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