Interaction of metal complexes with nucleic acids

This chapter reviews the literature reported during 2011 in the field of interaction of metal complexes with nucleic acids, also covering complex formation between transition metal ions and coordinating moieties within nucleic acids. As for the previous year, we have divided the chapter into three sections. The first focuses on the interaction of metal centres with DNA and is organised according to mode of interaction. The second section presents studies of metal complexes and metal ions that interact with RNA. In the last section we discuss examples where transition metals occupy coordination sites covalently incorporated within nucleic acids strands.