Fluorescent nucleobase analogues for base–base FRET in nucleic acids: synthesis, photophysics and applications

• Mattias Bood,
• Sangamesh Sarangamath,
• Moa S. Wranne,
• Morten Grøtli and
• L. Marcus Wilhelmsson

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 114–129, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.7

• . Keywords: B-to-Z-DNA transition; fluorescent base analogues; FRET; netropsin; nucleic acid structure and dynamics; quadracyclic adenines; tricyclic cytosines; Z-DNA; Review Introduction The importance of nucleic acid structure and dynamics in the understanding of vital processes in living organisms has

• developing the family of fluorescent base analogues known as the tricyclic cytosines (tC) [14][29][30][31][35][36][37][38]. The aromatic core of tC was first prepared by Roth et al. in 1963 as part of a study to obtain pharmacologically active compounds structurally similar to phenothiazines [39]. Compound 1

• where the acid-catalyzed cyclization as well as the glycosylation proved challenging. The latter two steps proceeded with a yield of 15% or less (17, Scheme 3). A new synthetic approach to access substituted tricyclic cytosines was envisioned in 2014 by Rodgers et al. (Scheme 4). This protocol increased