Single-stranded nucleic acids as templates for porphyrin assembly formation

Resonance light scattering (RLS) and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopies have been used to investigate the interactions of several cationic porphyrins with poly(dA) and poly(rA). Neither tetrakis(N-methylpyridinium-4-yl)porphin nor its zinc(II) derivative (H(2)T4 and ZnT4) show any tendency to form extended porphyrin assemblies in the presence of poly(dA). However, the poly(dA) complex of CuT4 involves considerable porphyrin self-stacking. In the presence of poly(rA), only ZnT4 of these three porphyrin derivatives, fails to assemble. Differences in the interactions of trans-bis(N-methyl-pyridinium-4-yl)diphenylporphine (t-H2Pagg) with these two single-stranded nucleic acid polymers are described. Whereas the porphyrin is capable of forming extended assemblies with either poly(dA) or poly(rA), increasing the salt concentration in the latter system results in a reversal of the induced circular dichroism spectrum in the Soret region indicating a conformational change of the porphyrin assembly.