DNA three-way junction–ruthenium complex assemblies†
Abstract
Three-way junction building blocks were designed to construct novel 2D ruthenium–DNA assemblies. Discrete three-branched DNA motifs were formed with 1 to 3 sticky ends of 14-, 20- and/or 24-mer nucleotides. Hybridization with the complementary mono Ru–DNA conjugates afforded the formation of a family of three-way assemblies with 1 to 3 peripheral ruthenium complexes. The use of sticky ends of different lengths allowed us to modulate the number of metallic complexes introduced and also to extend the structure. Indeed, our construction strategy associated with the use of bis ruthenium–DNA conjugates permitted the assembly of double three-way junctions linked by DNA duplexes with or without ruthenium complexes in their centre.