Boronate Based Metal-Free Platform for Diphosphate-Specific Molecular Recognitions

A reversible boronate-diol interaction provides a versatile synthetic platform for molecular recognitions whose binding specificity can be molecularly tailored. We found that boronate derivatives with relatively strong acidity generally undergo a diphosphate-specific recognition among other phosphates under weakly acidic pH conditions, a feature relevant to DNA sequencing. B-11 and P-31 NMR studies identified tetrahedral boronate and divalent diphosphate as a pair responsible for forming a 1:1 stoichiometric complex, which manifests as a unique pH-dependent stability.