Synthesis of components for the generation of constitutional dynamic analogues of nucleic acids

The introduction of dynamic covalent polymers, in which the monomer units are linked by reversible covalent bonds and can undergo component exchange, opens up new possibilities for the generation of functional materials. Extending this approach to the generation of dynamic biopolymers in aqueous media, which are able to adapt constitution (sequence, length) to external factors (e.g., environment, medium, template), would provide an alternative approach to the de novo design of functional dynamic bio-macromolecules. As a first step towards this goal, various mono- and bifunctionalised (hetero- and homotopic) nucleic acid-derived building blocks of type I-X have been synthesised for the generation of dynamic main-chain and side-chain reversible nucleic acid analogues. Hydrazide- and/or acetal (protected carbonyl)-functionalised components were selected, which differ in terms of flexibility, length, net formal charge, and hydrazide/acetal substituents, in order to explore how such factors may affect the properties (structure, solubility, molecular recognition features) of the polymer products that may be generated by polycondensation.