(Received: March 8, 2007; Accepted for publication: May 7, 2007; Published on Web: July 20, 2007)
It is known that RNA modified with the pyrenyl group (pyren-RNA) which uses the pyrene moiety as a fluorescent chromophore shows a remarkable increase in fluorescence when the double helix is formed with the complementary strand RNA, compared to the single strand pyrene-RNA, and that this phenomenon is not seen with DNA. For the purpose of designing a sequence recognition probe based on these phenomena, detailed data of the pyrenyl moiety in the pyrene-RNA and pyrene-DNA of double stranded structures are observed with MD simulation. In addition, the influence of mismatched combination of base in the complementary strand was examined. As a result, it was revealed that in the full-match double stranded pyrene-DNA the pyrene moiety stays inside the helix but in the full-match double stranded pyrene-RNA pyrene was thrusted out of the helix. Mismatch sequence in the pyrene-RNAdouble strand influenced the behavior of the pyrenyl moiety when the mismatch position was located close to the pyrene modified position.
Keywords: Base sequence recognition probe, Pyrene, DNA, RNA, Molecular dynamics