The role of alkyl substituents in deazaadenine-based diarylethene photoswitches

• Christopher Sarter,
• Michael Heimes and
• Andres Jäschke

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 1103–1110, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.106

• substituents at the carbon atoms between which the bond is formed or broken in the electrocyclic rearrangement. Here we probe this claim by the synthesis and characterization of four pairs of deazaadenine-based diarylethene photoswitches with either one or two methyl groups at these positions. Depending on the

• DNA photoswitches for the application in bionanotechnology and synthetic biology. Keywords: diarylethene; nucleoside; electrocyclic rearrangement; photochromism; photoswitch; Introduction Most biomacromolecules are per se not responsive to light. Their conversion into photoresponsive molecules opens

• the positions where the bond is formed in the electrocyclic rearrangement. Still, these new diarylethenes had very favorable switching properties [45]. These results were surprising, considering that two alkyl groups at these positions are considered as essential for reversible switching throughout