James S Craig, Larry Melidis, Hugo D Williams, Samuel J Dettmer, Alexandra A Heidecker, Philipp J Altmann, Shengyang Guan, Callum Campbell, Douglas F Browning, Roland K O Sigel, Silke Johannsen, Ross T Egan, Brech Aikman, Angela Casini, Alexander Pöthig, Michael J Hannon
Holliday 4-way junctions are key to important biological DNA processes (insertion, recombination, and repair) and are dynamic structures that adopt either open or closed conformations, the open conformation being the biologically active form. Tetracationic metallo-supramolecular pillarplexes display aryl faces about a cylindrical core, an ideal structure to interact with open DNA junction cavities. Combining experimental studies and MD simulations, we show that an Au pillarplex can bind DNA 4-way (Holliday) junctions in their open form, a binding mode not accessed by synthetic agents before...
June 15, 2023: Journal of the American Chemical Society