Light-induced functions in DNA.

The chemical toolbox for synthetic modification by nucleotide building blocks and postsynthetic methods delivers light-induced functions to DNA in great variety and allows not only to initiate photoinduced processes but additionally the temporal and spatial control of these artificial functions. Herein, selected light-induced artificial functions in DNA are briefly summarized. This includes the postsynthetic 'photoclick' labeling strategy, benzophenone and acetophenone nucleosides as photosensitizers to induce [2+2] cycloadditions, molecular switches and energy transfer based fluorophore pairs, called "DNA traffic lights".