Rapid Phosphodiester Hydrolysis by Zirconium(IV)

A 3×109-fold faster cleavage of DNA dinucleotide 1 to thymidine and phosphate can be achieved under mild conditions (pH 5.5, 20°C) with a zirconium(IV) complex containing tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane as ligand [Eq. (1)]. In view of applications of artificial DNAses to molecular biology and gene therapy, non-redox-active zirconium(IV) is an alternative to the highly efficient but reduction-sensitive cerium(IV).