Ruthenium-Caged Antisense Morpholinos for Regulating Gene Expression in Zebrafish Embryos.
Chem Sci 2015;
6:2342-2346. [PMID:
26023327 PMCID:
PMC4443914 DOI:
10.1039/c4sc03990d]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2014] [Accepted: 01/29/2015] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Photochemical approaches afford high spatiotemporal control over molecular structure and function, for broad applications in materials and biological science. Here, we present the first example of a visible light responsive ruthenium-based photolinker, Ru(bipyridine)2(3-ethynylpyridine)2 (RuBEP), which was reacted stoichiometrically with a 25mer DNA or morpholino (MO) oligonucleotide functionalized with 3' and 5' terminal azides, via Cu(I)-mediated [3+2] Huisgen cycloaddition reactions. RuBEP-caged circular morpholinos (Ru-MOs) targeting two early developmental zebrafish genes, chordin and notail, were synthesized and tested in vivo. One-cell-stage zebrafish embryos microinjected with Ru-MO and incubated in the dark for 24 h developed normally, consistent with caging, whereas irradiation at 450 nm dissociated one 3-ethynylpyridine ligand (ϕ = 0.33) and uncaged the MO to achieve gene knockdown. As demonstrated, Ru photolinkers provide a versatile method for controlling structure and function of biopolymers.
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