Acta Chimica Sinica ›› 2013, Vol. 71 ›› Issue (01): 36-39.DOI: 10.6023/A12121089 Previous Articles     Next Articles

Communications

DNA催化水相体系中的二硫缩醛反应

王长号, 李英豪, 贾国卿, 卢胜梅, 刘䶮, 李灿   

  1. 催化基础国家重点实验室 中国科学院大连化学物理研究所 大连 116023
  • 投稿日期:2012-12-22 发布日期:2013-01-08
  • 通讯作者: 李灿 E-mail:canli@dicp.ac.cn
  • 基金资助:

    项目受国家自然科学基金(Nos. 20773123, 20621063, 31000392)资助.

DNA Catalyzed Dithioacetalization in Water

Wang Changhao, Li Yinghao, Jia Guoqing, Lu Shengmei, Liu Yan, Li Can   

  1. State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China
  • Received:2012-12-22 Published:2013-01-08
  • Supported by:

    Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 20773123, 20621063, 31000392).

The most popular hypothesis of precellular life is the “RNA World”, which is utilizing RNA as both genetic as well as catalytic material. The chemical similarity between RNA and DNA leads researchers to investigate whether DNA has the catalytic function, although DNA is commonly viewed as a genetic carrier with a ubiquitous double-stranded architecture in living world. Nevertheless, the catalytic DNA has not been discovered in nature to date. In recent years, the catalytic function of DNA in nonbiological applications has aroused much interest to chemists in chemical synthesis such as DNA-templated organic synthesis and DNA-based asymmetric catalysis. However, the investigation of DNA as a direct catalyst for organic synthesis is largely elusive. Here we report that double-stranded DNA from herring sperm can catalyze the dithioacetalization in water for a wide range of aldehydes under mild reaction conditions. It is proposed that the phosphate groups of DNA together with the duplex architecture are responsible for the catalytic reaction.

Key words: double-stranded DNA, herring sperm, catalysis, dithioacetalization, water medium, phosphate group