Enantioselective Recognition between Polydiacetylene Nucleolipid Monolayers and Complementary Oligonucleotides

Abstract

A two-dimensional bio/synthetic hybrid system at the air−solution interface made of a polymerized diacetylene Langmuir film with nucleobase modified headgroups is presented. The polymerized film presents a crystalline array of nucleobases, capable of specific binding of complementary mononucleoside or oligonucleotide sequences. Mixed monolayers of the linear polyconjugated polydiacetylene (PDA) films derivatized with cytosine (10,12-pentacosadiyne-cytidyl, PDC) monomers and alcohol-terminated diacetylene lipid (10,12-pentacosadiynol, PDOH) at a 3:1 ratio (PDC 75%) were compressed and polymerized at the air−water interface with circular polarized light (CPL) or nonpolarized UV light. Here we report a grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD) investigation of PDC films polymerized to different chirality and hybridized with complementary ssDNA strands. We have demonstrated enantioselective interactions on synthetic structured interfaces produced by Langmuir surface compression followed by polymerization with circular polarized UV light (CPL). The left- and right-CPL polymerized light exhibit the same well-defined crystalline structure. The observed difference between left- and right-CPL polymerized PDC 75% Langmuir films compressed over the complementary mononucleotide guanosine or hybridized with fully complementary ssG₁₂T₅ oligonucleotide in the subphase suggests that they are indeed enantiomeric structures, capable of enantioselective binding of their natural ligand, guanosine, solely as a result of surface induced asymmetry in “left” but not in “right” form. This observation may also be related to the intriguing question of chiral selection during the early period of “Origin of Life”. We show that achiral compounds, as a result of irradiation with circular polarized light, can organize in chiral surface structures capable of amplification of biopolymer binding of particular handedness.