Dna-templated Chemical Reactions:

INTRODUCTION Nature has produced the most selective and efficient catalysts known, often in the form of enzymes having well defined structures to direct substrate recognition and subsequent catalysis of chemical transformations. These capabilities have inspired multiple research efforts focused on the development of supramolecular assemblies that mimic enzymes by serving as templates for chemical reactions. Pederson was among the first to demonstrate non-enzymatic reaction templation by his use of a potassium ion to direct the cyclization of benzo[18]crown-6 (Figure 1). With the development of more complex templation motifs, the definition of templation has emerged as the use of a supramolecular assembly to organize reactants in a specific spatial arrangement, favoring formation of a single product where the possibility to form more than one product exists. One motif that has recently received increased attention due to its versatility in templating chemical reactions is single stranded DNA. O