Polyoxometalates as artificial nucleases: hydrolytic cleavage of DNA promoted by a highly negatively charged ZrIV-substituted Keggin polyanion.

A highly negatively charged binuclear ZrIV-substituted Keggin polyoxometalate [{α-PW11O39Zr(µ-OH)(H2O)}2]8- (ZrK 2 : 2) has been shown to promote the hydrolytic cleavage of phosphoester bonds in the supercoiled plasmid pUC19 DNA under physiological pH and temperature, giving relaxed and linear forms of pUC19 as hydrolysis products. The interaction between ZrK 2 : 2 and DNA was experimentally proven by circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy and 31P diffusion ordered NMR spectroscopy.