Cover Feature: Towards an Understanding of the Molecular Mechanisms of Variable Unnatural Base‐Pair Behavior: A Biophysical Analysis of dNaM‐dTPT3 (Chem. Eur. J. 56/2021)

Abstract

A biophysical analysis of nucleic acid duplexes containing the unnatural hydrophobic base pair (d)NaM-dTPT3 provides an understanding of the type of molecular level interactions that could contribute to variabilities in replication, transcription and translation in a semisynthetic organism. Such approaches could provide a basis for comprehending the behavior of other unnatural base pairs (spheres top left) with a view towards unrestricted expansion of the genetic alphabet and code (spheres bottom-right) in a semisynthetic organism. More information can be found in the Full Paper by R. Krishnamurthy et al. (DOI: 10.1002/chem.202102348). Picture by Saurav Nagpal with the help of R.K. (background DNA image from www.canva.com).