Molecular knot

In chemistry, a molecular knot is a mechanically interlocked molecular architecture that is analogous to a macroscopic knot.^[1] Naturally-forming molecular knots are found in organic molecules like DNA, RNA, and proteins. It is not certain that naturally occurring knots are evolutionarily advantageous to nucleic acids or proteins, though knotting is thought to play a role in the structure, stability, and function of knotted biological molecules.^[2] The mechanism by which knots naturally form in molecules, and the mechanism by which a molecule is stabilized or improved by knotting, is ambiguous.^[3] The study of molecular knots involves the formation and applications of both naturally occurring and chemically synthesized molecular knots. Applying chemical topology and knot theory to molecular knots allows biologists to better understand the structures and synthesis of knotted organic molecules.^[1]

The term knotane was coined by Vögtle et al. in 2000 to describe molecular knots by analogy with rotaxanes and catenanes, which are other mechanically interlocked molecular architectures.^[1][4] The term has not been broadly adopted by chemists and has not been adopted by IUPAC.