Coordination-driven inversion of handedness in ligand-modified PNA

Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) is a synthetic analogue of DNA, which has the same nucleobases as DNA but typically has a backbone based on aminoethyl glycine (Aeg). PNA forms duplexes by Watson Crick hybridization. The Aeg-based PNA duplexes adopt a chiral helical structure but do not have a preferred handedness because they do not contain a chiral center. An L-lysine situated at the C-end of one or both strands of a PNA duplex causes the duplex to preferably adopt a left-handed structure. We have introduced into the PNA duplexes both a C-terminal L-lysine and one or two PNA monomers that have a γ-(S)-methyl-aminoethyl glycine backbone, which is known to induce a preference for a right-handed structure. Indeed, we found that in these duplexes the γ-methyl monomer exerts the dominant chiral induction effect causing the duplexes to adopt a right-handed structure. The chiral PNA monomer had a 2,2':6',2'-terpyridine (Tpy) ligand instead of a nucleobase and PNA duplexes that contained one or two Tpys formed [Cu(Tpy)(2)](2+) complexes in the presence of Cu(2+). The CD spectroscopy studies showed that these metal-coordinated duplexes were right-handed due to the chiral induction effect exerted by the S-Tpy PNA monomer(s) except for the cases when the [Cu(Tpy)(2)](2+) complex was formed with Tpy ligands from two different PNA duplexes. In the latter case, the metal complex bridged the two PNA duplexes and the duplexes were left-handed. The results of this study show that the preferred handedness of a ligand-modified PNA can be switched as a consequence of metal coordination to the ligand. This finding could be used as a tool in the design of functional nucleic-acid based nanostructures.     

Fast, ligand- and solvent-free copper-catalyzed click reactions in a ball mill

A new, ligand- and solvent-free method for the Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition (click reaction) was developed using a planetary ball mill. Besides various alkynes and azides, a propargyl functionalized polymer was converted by mill clicking. Moreover, it was possible to carry out a click polymerization in a ball mill.     

Ausschreibung: Wissenschaftlicher Preis der GMÖOR

Ausschreibung: Wissenschaftlicher Preis der GMÖOR     

Computing border bases

This paper presents several algorithms that compute border bases of a zero-dimensional ideal. The first relates to the FGLM algorithm as it uses a linear basis transformation. In particular, it is able to compute border bases that do not contain a reduced Gröbner basis. The second algorithm is based on a generic algorithm by Bernard Mourrain originally designed for computing an ideal basis that need not be a border basis. Our fully detailed algorithm computes a border basis of a zero-dimensional ideal from a given set of generators. To obtain concrete instructions we appeal to a degree-compatible term ordering σ and hence compute a border basis that contains the reduced σ-Gröbner basis. We show an example in which this computation actually has advantages over Buchberger's algorithm. Moreover, we formulate and prove two optimizations of the Border Basis Algorithm which reduce the dimensions of the linear algebra subproblems.