"Fleximers". Design and synthesis of two novel split nucleosides.

[structure: see text] A new class of shape-modified nucleosides is introduced. The purine heterobases of adenosine and guanosine have been split into their imidazole and pyrimidine components, thereby introducing flexibility while retaining the elements necessary for recognition. As a consequence, these novel "fleximers" should find use as bioprobes for investigating enzyme-coenzyme binding sites as well as nucleic acid and protein interactions. Their design and synthesis is described.