Regulation of duplex DNA strand displacement by visible light sensitive bis-peptide nucleic acid.

A novel visible light sensitive azobenzene (AZO) was synthesized and introduced into bis-peptide nucleic acid (bis-PNA), which consists of two homopyrimidine PNA strands, as a linker. Visible light irradiation of the bis-PNA-AZO conjugate induced photoisomerization of the azobenzene moiety from trans to cis. The cis-form of bis-PNA-AZO displaced the complementary duplex DNA more efficiently than the trans-form.