The DOI matches its Crossref record; 7 of the 7 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Understanding Nucleic Acids Using Synthetic Chemistry
Abstract
This Account describes work done in these laboratories that has used synthetic, physical organic, and biological chemistry to understand the roles played by the nucleobases, sugars, and phosphates of DNA in the molecular recognition processes central to genetics. The number of nucleobases has been increased from 4 to 12, generating an artificially expanded genetic information system. This system is used today in the clinic to monitor the levels of HIV and hepatitis C viruses in patients, helping to manage patient care. Work with uncharged phosphate replacements suggests that a repeating charge is a universal feature of genetic molecules operating in water and will be found in extraterrestrial life (if it is ever encountered). The use of ribose may reflect prebiotic processes in the presence of borate-containing minerals, which stabilize ribose formed from simple organic precursors. A new field, synthetic biology, is emerging on the basis of these experiments, where chemistry mimics biological processes as complicated as Darwinian evolution.
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Citations
Cites
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Self-citationWhat is the optimum size for the genetic alphabet?
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Cited by
Prebiotic Systems Chemistry: New Perspectives for the Origins of Life
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“ATP drives all these condensations today (Goodwin and Lynn, 1992; Benner, 2004), but at the emergence of life, pyrophosphate—presumed to have been produced in protoH + pyrophosphatases—may have fulfilled the same role (Yamanaka et al. 1988; Russell and Hall, 1997; Yamagata and Inomata, 1997;…”
The search for the chemistry of life's origin
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“NMR analysis shows that borate occupies the 2' and 3' positions of ribose, thus leaving the 5' position available for potential reactions like phosphorylation [30,34].”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Benner, S. A.
- Venue
- Accounts of Chemical Research
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2004-08-31
- Volume
- 37
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 784-797
- ISSN
- 0001-4842 (ISSN-L)
- 1520-4898
- OpenAlex
- W2164903159
- Cited by
- 379
- References
- 7
- FWCI
- 4.05
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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