Beyond the Watson-Crick double helix: design of functional nucleic acids in silico, in tube, and in cell.

Abstract

The structures and thermodynamic properties of non-Watson-Crick structures in RNA and DNA are described. The recent data on dangling ends in RNA, peptide nucleic acid (PNA), triplex, and G-quadruplex have resulted in an understanding of the catalysis, tertiary contact domains, and biological functions associated with these unpaired regions and special helices, and are useful in developing functional nucleic acids in cell.