Recognition of longer duplex DNA by cooperative strand invasion.

Abstract

Peptide nucleic acid is a synthetic DNA mimic in which the sugar-phosphate backbone has been replaced by a peptide backbone. A remarkable feature of PNA is its ability to recognize sequences within duplex DNA by strand invasion. We have previously demonstrated that a PNA targeting six bases within duplex DNA cooperatively binds to 12 base-pair site by strand invasion. We here report an successful extension of the target site size to 18 base pairs without the expense of specificity.