Simple lysine conjugates are capable of selective DNA damage at sites approximating a variety of naturally occurring DNA-damage patterns. This process transforms single-strand DNA cleavage into double-strand cleavage with a potential impact on gene and cancer therapy or on the design of DNA constructs that require disassembly at a specific location. This study constitutes an example of DNA damage site recognition by molecules that are two orders of magnitude smaller than DNA-processing enzymes and presents a strategy for site-selective cleavage of single-strand nucleotides, which is based on their annealing with two shorter counterstrands designed to recreate the above duplex damage site.
