text: Expanded nucleotides and their oligomeric helices share many properties with their natural B-DNA counterparts, including their pairing preference: A with T, C with G. The various differences in chemical properties between xDNA and B-DNA support the hypothesis that the benzene ring which expands x-nucleobases is not, in fact, chemically inert. xDNA is more hydrophobic than B-DNA, and also has a smaller HOMO-LUMO gap (distance between the highest occupied molecular orbital and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital) as a result of modified saturation. xDNA has higher melting temperatures than B-DNA (a mixed decamer of xA and T has a melting temperature of 55.6 °C, 34.3 °C higher than the same decamer of A and T), and exhibits an "all-or-nothing" melting behaviour.