The Chemical Biology that Controls DNA Function and Structure

Fifty years after the discovery of the double helical structure of DNA, the complete sequence of the human genome has been determined. All genetic information, which is necessary for life, is written in 30 billion base pairs of DNA. Many diseases, including cancer, hereditary and viral diseases, can be understood at the DNA sequence level. Local DNA conformations are thought to play an important role in biological processes such as gene expression. Therefore, DNA sequences and local DNA conformation are targets of novel drugs that would precisely switch certain genes on or off. Modified bases that perform various functions can also be incorporated into defined DNA sequences. Since DNA can be amplified by PCR and in other organisms, DNA becomes a promising unit for nanotechnology applications. In this review, we focus on the sequence and conformation-specific chemical reactions that occur in DNA, and the prospective uses of the chemical biology of DNA will be discussed.