Sequence Information Transfer in Oligoarylacetylenes

Abstract

The ability of genetic biopolymers to store and transfer information provides the mechanism for the evolution of function from a population of sequences. Synthetic polymers with the ability to transmit information are exceedingly rare. This work demonstrates template‐directed information transfer in oligoarylacetylene trimers that use reversible covalent bonds to form base pairing interactions. Information was encoded as a sequence of aniline and benzaldehyde subunits linked together by a diethynylbenzene backbone. Trimers formed sequence‐specific, imine‐linked monomer‐template complexes, which could be oligomerized using palladium mediated Sonogashira coupling to generate daughter trimers with complementary sequences.