The effect of 2′-fluorine substitutions on DNA i-motif conformation and stability†
Abstract
1H and 19F NMR, and UV thermal melting studies have established that the stability of d(TCCCCC) is enhanced by the inclusion of a single 2′-fluorine-modified deoxycytidine residue; the results support the notion of the importance of sugar–sugar contacts in stabilising i-motifs in general and reveal that solvation is the cause of the instability of RNA equivalents.