Backbone-free duplex-stacked monomer nucleic acids exhibiting Watson–Crick selectivity

Significance The columnar liquid crystal phases reported here are physical associations of the smallest molecular species to self-assemble into the duplex base-paired stacked columnar double-helical structures of nucleic acids. These assemblies of monomers can provide starting states capable of partitioning appropriate molecules from solution with a high degree of selectivity, acting as pathways for the prebiotic appearance of molecular...