All pairwise interactions occurring between bases which could be detected in three-dimensional structures of crystallized RNA molecules are annotated on new planar diagrams. The diagrams attempt to map the underlying complex networks of base–base interactions and, especially, they aim at conveying key relationships between helical domains: co-axial stacking, bending and all Watson–Crick as well...

Janus bases are heterocyclic nucleic acid base analogs that present two different faces able to simultaneously hydrogen bond to nucleosides that form Watson-Crick base pairs. The synthesis of a Janus-AT nucleotide analogue, (N)JAT , that has an additional endocyclic ring nitrogen and is thus more capable of efficiently discriminating T/A over G/C bases when base-pairing in a standard duplex-DNA...

The crystal structure of an 8-mer (S)-GNA duplex is presented. As a tool for phasing, the anomalous diffraction of two copper(II) ions within two artificial metallo-base pairs was employed. The duplex structure confirms a canonical Watson-Crick base pairing scheme of GNA with antiparallel strands. The duplex secondary structure is distinct from canonical A- and B-form nucleic acids and can be d...

In 1954 Max Delbrück published "On the Replication of Desoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA)" to question the semi-conservative DNA replication mechanism proposed that James Watson [2] and Francis Crick [3] had proposed in 1953. In his article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [4], Delbrück offers an alternative DNA replication mechanism, later called dispersive replication...

Early X-ray diffraction patterns from oriented fibres indicated that DNA must have a simple, repetitious structure and encouraged some researchers, who were already convinced that DNA was the genetic material, to undertake more detailed diffraction analyses and speculative modelling. The pioneering experimental work by Wilkins in the Wheatstone Laboratory at King's College London in the late 19...

We investigate the class of functions computable by uni-transitional Watson–Crick D0L systems: only one complementarity transition is possible during each derivation. The class is characterized in terms of a certain min-operation applied to Z-rational functions. We also exhibit functions outside the class, and show that the basic decision problems are equivalent or harder than a celebrated open...