SELF-REPLICATION OF OLIGONUCLEOTIDES IN REVERSE MICELLES

The coupling between the tri(deoxynucleotides) d[(MeO)C-G-Ap] (1) and d[(NH2)Td5'-C-G] (2) to yield the phosphoramidate-linked (hexadeoxy-nucleotide) d[(MeO)C-G-Anh5'Td5,-C-G] (3) was investigated both in aqueous solution and in reverse micelles constituted of CTAB (cetyl(trimethyl)ammonium bromide) in hexane/pentan-1-ol 9:1. No significant difference was found concerning the yield and the kinetics of the reaction in the two systems. The coupling between 1 and 2 was also carried out in the presence of the template d[(MeO)C-G-A-T-C-G] (4), an analogue of 3, so as to reproduce the conditions of template-directed self replication. It was shown that the trinucleotide coupling in the presence of a template obeys the so-called square-root law both in H2O and in reverse micelles. No significant difference of the time course of the reaction in H2O and in reverse micelles was observed. This shows that self-replication of oligonucleotides occurs within geometrically bounded structures, which represents a step forward in the mimicking of minimal life processes.