Molecular Design of Synthetic Receptors with Dynamic, Imprinting, and Allosteric Functions

Sugar recognition in an aqueous system has been achieved using a boronic acid–diol interaction. Combination with an intramolecular amino group has enabled us to read out the binding process as a change in the fluorescence intensity. This novel sugar-sensing method has been combined with a concept of “molecular machinery”, providing a new guest-binding mode with allosteric functions. When this method is combined with a concept of “molecular imprinting”, it becomes possible to design sugar-selective receptors created by a combinatorial method. The sugar recognition event is useful as a trigger to control molecular assemblies such as micelles, membranes, vesicles, and gels.