Stereospecific Formation of a Ternary Complex of (S)‐α,β‐Fluoromethylene‐dATP with DNA Pol β

The influence of water: crystallization of (R/S)-α,β-CHF-dATP with the preorganized pol β-DNA complex shows that (S)-α,β-CHF-dATP is preferentially bound to the active site with the C=F fluorine proximal to a structural water bound to Asp276.