Transfer of Sequence Information and Replication of Diimine Duplexes

The
ability of the biopolymers RNA and DNA to store and transfer
information is essential to life. Herein, we demonstrate template-directed
replication in a set of dimer duplexes that use reversible covalent
bonds to form base-pairing interactions. Binary sequence information
was encoded as a sequence of aniline and benzaldehyde subunits linked
together by a diethynyl benzene backbone. These dimers formed sequence-specific,
imine-linked duplexes, which could be separated and used as templates
for the synthesis of daughter duplexes with identical sequences.