Translation of DNA into synthetic N-acyloxazolidines.

The translation of DNA into synthetic molecules enables their manipulation by powerful evolution-based methods previously available only to proteins and nucleic acids. The development of increasingly sophisticated DNA-templated small-molecule syntheses is crucial to broadening the scope of this approach. Here, we report the translation of DNA templates into monocyclic and bicyclic N-acyloxazolidines using multistep DNA-templated organic synthesis. Second-generation template architectures, used for the first time in a multistep DNA-templated synthesis, together with reactions and linker cleavage strategies not previously described in a DNA-templated format, were crucial to the successful translation. The products generated in this work represent the most complex small molecules to date synthesized in a DNA sequence-programmed manner and provide the basis for DNA-templated synthetic heterocycle libraries.