Xeno nucleic acid

This article may require copy editing for Parts are like a school essay with detail about "all things _NA" (off-topic), and personal/informal writing.. You can assist by editing it. (October 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Xenonucleic acids (XNAs) are synthetic nucleic acid analogues that are made up of non-natural components such as alternative nucleosides, sugars, or backbones.^[1][2]

XNAs have different properties from endogenous nucleic acids. This means they can be used in different applications, such as therapeutics, probes, or functional molecules. For example, peptide nucleic acids, where the backbone is made up of repeating aminoethylglycine units, are extremely stable and resistant to degradation by nucleases because they are not recognised.

The same nucleobases can be used to store genetic information and interact with DNA, RNA, or other XNA bases, but the different backbone gives the structure different properties. This may mean it cannot be processed by naturally occurring cellular processes. For example, natural DNA polymerases cannot read and duplicate this information, thus the genetic information stored in XNA is invisible to DNA-based organisms.^[3]

As of 2011^[update], at least six types of synthetic sugars have been shown to form nucleic acid backbones that can store and retrieve genetic information. Research is now being done to create synthetic polymerases to transform XNA. The study of the production and application of XNA molecules has created the field of current xenobiology.^[3]