Metal Complexes as Photochemical Probes of DNA Structure

Transition metal chemistry provides a versatile means to develop reagents which with photoactivation cleave DNA either in a sequence-specific or sequence-uniform fashion. In my laboratory we have exploited the photochemistry of tris(phenanthroline) metal complexes and their derivatives in developing such photocleaving molecules.1 The tris(phenanthroline) complexes are illustrated schematically below.