Template-Directed Nonenzymatic Primer Extension Using 2-Methylimidazole-Activated Morpholino Derivatives of Guanosine and Cytidine.

ABSTRACT: Efforts to develop self-replicating nucleic acids have led to insights into the origin of life and have also suggested potential pathways to the design of artificial life forms based on non-natural nucleic acids. The template-directed nonenzymatic polymerization of activated ribonucleotide monomers is generally slow because of the relatively weak nucleophilicity of the primer 3'-hydroxyl. To circumvent this problem, several nucleic acids based on amino-sugar nucleotides have been studied, and as expected, the more-nucleophilic amine generally results in faster primer extension. Extending this logic, we have chosen to study morpholino nucleic acid (MoNA), because the secondary amine of the morpholino-nucleotides is expected to be highly nucleophilic. We describe the synthesis of 2-methylimi

SUBMITTER: Zhang W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7547883 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature