Front Cover: Topologically‐Interlocked Minicircles as Probes of DNA Topology and DNA‐Protein Interactions (Chem. Eur. J. 22/2022)

Abstract

In the frame: Topologically interlocked minicircle DNA rotaxanes and catenanes inside DNA origami frames have been designed and synthesized. With these assemblies, the DNA topology and its influence on DNA–protein interactions were examined by enzymatic restriction. Facile cleavage by restriction enzymes was observed for flexible linear duplexes, whereas free or interlocked minicircles were reluctant to split, thus indicating the role of the topology. More information can be found in the Research Article by T. Morii et al. (DOI: 10.1002/chem.202200108).

Hybridization-specific chemical reactions to create interstrand crosslinking and threaded structures of nucleic acids

“…In nucleic acid chemistry, threaded and interlocked molecular architectures, such as catenanes and rotaxanes, have been studied for DNA nanotechnology, [69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80] topological labels, 81,82 and complexes' stabilization. 83,84 Generally, these are constructed enzymatically using a ligase.…”