For the first time, scientists have developed artificial nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA, with several additional properties in the laboratory.
The DNA carries the genetic information of all living organisms and consists of only four different building blocks, the nucleotides. Nucleotides are composed of three distinctive parts: a sugar molecule, a phosphate group and one of the four nucleobases adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine. The nucleotides are lined up millions of times and form the DNA double helix, similar to a spiral staircase.
"In addition, the built-in unnatural base pair enables alternative binding options to target molecules in the cell," added Hannah Depmeier, lead author of the study. Kath-Schorr is certain that such a function can be used in particular in the development of new aptamers, short DNA or RNA sequences, which can be used for the targeted control of cellular mechanisms.
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