The synthetic nuclease, Clip-Phen copper complex (1), promotes a very efficient oxidative cleavage of nucleic acids in the presence of a reductant. This molecule is a promising tool for nucleic acids based diagnostics where there is a need to fragment the long DNA, or RNA targets, prior to their amplification or hybridization on DNA arrays. However, even if Clip-Phen mediated oxidation occurs selectively at the desoxy or ribose moiety, the resulting cleavage is random. In ...
