Ulrike Reisacher; Linda Antusch; Robert Hofsäß; Christian Schwechheimer; Benjamin Lehmann; Hans-Achim Wagenknecht
Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol., 2017, 40, 119-126
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpa.2017.07.011

Abstract

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”.