A research program has applied the tools of synthetic organic chemistry to systematically modify the structure of DNA and RNA oligonucleotides to learn more about the chemical principles underlying their ability to store and transmit genetic information. Oligonucleotides (as opposed to nucleosides) have long been overlooked by synthetic organic chemists as targets for structural modification. Synthetic chemistry has now yielded oligonucleotides with 12 replicatable letters, modified backbones, and new insight into why Nature chose the oligonucleotide structures that she did.

中文翻译：

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重新设计核酸

一项研究计划应用合成有机化学工具系统地修改 DNA 和 RNA 寡核苷酸的结构，以了解更多关于它们存储和传输遗传信息能力的化学原理。寡核苷酸（与核苷相反）长期以来一直被合成有机化学家忽视为结构修饰的目标。合成化学现在已经产生了具有 12 个可复制字母的寡核苷酸、修饰的骨架，以及对 Nature 为何选择她所做的寡核苷酸结构的新见解。