G. M. Visser

Amplification of chirality based upon the association of nucleic acid strands of opposite handedness.

SummaryIt is proposed that nucleotide strands of opposite handedness may strongly associate and thereby provide the key step of a mechanism for the amplification of a small enantiomeric excess in an initially near-racemic mixture of poly- or oligonucleotides. This hypothesis, if confirmed by experimentation, may have important implications for the question of the origin of biomolecular chirality. The results of preliminary NMR experiments are given, which do show evidence of a strong association between pentanucleotide RNA strands whose monomers have opposite chirality. Simple kinetic equations are solved to demonstrate the conditions under which such association can produce amplification of chirality.

Synthesis of 3′-Amino-3′-deoxyguanosine 5′-Triphosphate

Abstract Phosphorylation of 2′-0-acetyl-3′-trifluoroacetamido-3′-deoxy-N2-palmitoylguanosine with N-morpholino-O, O-bis(1-benzotriazolyl)phos-phate gives a 5′-phosphotriester. Removal of the benzotriazolyl group and addition of pyrophosphoric acid gave, after deblocking all protecting groups, GTP(3′NH2).

Synthesis of a teichoic acid fragment of bacillus var.niger w.m. by a phosphotriester approach

Abstract Three properly-protected derivatives, one non-terminal and two terminal units, of 3-0-(2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-β-D-glucopyranosyl)-sn-glycerol have been joined together by two interglyceridic (2→1) phosphotriester linkages to afford, after removal of all protective groups, a teichoic acid fragment.