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Abstract
Helical aromatic oligoamide foldamers bearing anionic side chains that mimic the overall shape and charge surface distribution of DNA were synthesized. Their interactions with chromosomal protein Sac7d, a non-sequence-selective DNA-binder that kinks and packages DNA, were investigated by Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR), Circular Dichroism (CD), and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopies, as well as by single crystal X-ray crystallography. The foldamers were shown to bind to Sac7d better than a DNA duplex of comparable length. The interaction is diastereoselective and takes place at the DNA-binding site. Crystallography revealed that the DNA-mimic foldamers have a binding mode of their own and that they can bind to Sac7d without being kinked.
