Specific interactions between silver(i) ions and cytosine–cytosine pairs in DNA duplexes

Abstract

Very specific binding of the Ag(i) ion unexpectedly stabilized DNA duplexes containing the naturally occurring cytosine-cytosine (C-C) mismatch-base pair; because the C-C pair selectively binds to the Ag(i) ion, we developed a DNA-based Ag(i) sensor that employed an oligodeoxyribonucleotide containing C-C pairs used for Ag(i) binding sites.