Regulating gene expression in zebrafish embryos using light-activated, negatively charged peptide nucleic acids

The synthesis, characterization and in vivo application of two light-activated negatively charged peptide nucleic acids (ncPNAs) whose hybridization to mRNA is conditionally blocked by a complementary 2'-OMe RNA strand are described. They have succeeded in regulating two developmentally important genes in zebrafish embryos by using caged negatively charged PNAs.