Based on a series of elegant experiments, Kool and coworkers [1] concluded that not
Watson±Crick hydrogen bonding but steric effects, that is, the shape of DNA bases is mainly …

The physical and chemical factors that allow DNA to perform its functions in the cell have
been studied for several decades. Recent advances in the synthesis and manipulation of …

The discovery by Kool and co-workers that 2, 4-difluorotoluene (F) mimics thymine (T) in
DNA replication has led to a controversy about the question if this mimic has the capability of …

The polymerase enzyme hardly differentiates between thymine and difluorotoluene
nucleotides with respect to the replication selectivity. X‐ray structure analysis show the …

Hydrogen bonding in DNA—a return to the status quo Page 1 Me F F N N Me O O H Me Me F
F Me 1 2 3 4 5 O HO HO Me F F O HO HO N N Me O O H (a) (b) Hydrogen bonding in DNA—a …

That hydrogen bonds play a central role in forming Watson–Crick (W–C) AT and GC base
pairs is a fundamental paradigm dating from the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953. In …

We address the recent debate surrounding the ability of 2, 4-difluorotoluene (F), a low-
polarity mimic of thymine (T), to form a hydrogen-bonded complex with adenine in DNA. The …

Until recently, the large majority of studies of the origins of DNA replication fidelity have
concluded that complementarity of hydrogen bonding is the chief source of energetic …

In DNA, bases pair in a molecular interaction that is both highly predictable and exquisitely
specific. Therefore researchers have generally believed that the insertion of the matching …

Up till now, there has been a significant disagreement between theory and experiment
regarding hydrogen bond lengths in Watson− Crick base pairs. To investigate the possible …