DNA-Templated Synthesis

Abstract

In DNA templated synthesis (DTS) the effective local concentration of two or more reactants tethered to oligonucleotide strands is regulated by direct hybridization of the strands or by hybridization to a common template, bringing the reactants in close proximity. This provides efficient DNA-programmed control of chemical reactions at low concentrations. Furthermore, the approach may leave a nucleic acid tag on the reaction product enabling identification by PCR and sequencing. The concept has been applied for a variety of purposes, where control and spatial directionality of chemical reactivity are important, such as for chemical ligation of nucleic acids, nucleic acid detection, construction of macromolecular nanostructures, multistep synthesis, drug discovery, and chemical reaction discovery. In this chapter a selection of pertinent contributions to the field DTS are reviewed.