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Supramolecular polymerization of a prebiotic nucleoside provides insights into the creation of sequence-controlled polymers

Self-assembly of a nucleoside on Au(111) was studied to ascertain whether polymerization on well-defined substrates constitutes a promising approach for making sequence-controlled polymers. Scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory were used to investigate the self-assembly on Au(1...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Wang, Jun, Bonnesen, Peter V., Rangel, E., Vallejo, E., Sanchez-Castillo, Ariadna, James Cleaves II, H., Baddorf, Arthur P., Sumpter, Bobby G., Pan, Minghu, Maksymovych, Petro, Fuentes-Cabrera, Miguel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4698751/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26725380
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep18891
Descripción
Sumario:Self-assembly of a nucleoside on Au(111) was studied to ascertain whether polymerization on well-defined substrates constitutes a promising approach for making sequence-controlled polymers. Scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory were used to investigate the self-assembly on Au(111) of (RS)-N(9)-(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)adenine (DHPA), a plausibly prebiotic nucleoside analog of adenosine. It is found that DHPA molecules self-assemble into a hydrogen-bonded polymer that grows almost exclusively along the herringbone reconstruction pattern, has a two component sequence that is repeated over hundreds of nanometers, and is erasable with electron-induced excitation. Although the sequence is simple, more complicated ones are envisioned if two or more nucleoside types are combined. Because polymerization occurs on a substrate in a dry environment, the success of each combination can be gauged with high-resolution imaging and accurate modeling techniques. These characteristics make nucleoside self-assembly on a substrate an attractive approach for designing sequence-controlled polymers. Further, by choosing plausibly prebiotic nucleosides, insights may be provided into how nature created the first sequence-controlled polymers capable of storing information. Such insights, in turn, can inspire new ways of synthesizing sequence-controlled polymers.