Synthesis and RNA Binding Selectivity of Oligonucleotides Modified with Five-Atom Thioacetamido Nucleic Acid Backbone Structures

摘要

Convenient chemical synthesis and incorporation of dithymidine and thymidine-cytidine dimer blocks connected with a five-atom amide linker N3'-CO-CH_2-S-CH_2 into oligonucleotides (ONs) are reported. The UV-T_m experiments for binding affinities of these mixed backbone ONs with complementary DNA and RNA sequences revealed important results such as significantly higher RNA-binding selectivity as compared with complementary DNA. NMR studies of the dimer blocks suggested a marginal increase in the N-type sugar conformations over that of the native DNA.