Kinetic Discrimination in Recognition of DNA Quadruplex Targets by Guanine-Rich Heteroquadruplex-Forming PNA Probes

Guanine-rich peptide nucleic acid probes hybridize to DNA G quadruplex targets with high affinity, forming PNA–DNA heteroquadruplexes. We report a surprising degree of kinetic discrimination for PNA heteroquadruplex formation with a series of DNA targets. The fastest hybridization is observed for targets folded into parallel morphologies.