[Interaction of short oligonucleotide derivatives with nucleic acids. V. Ligation of short oligonucleotides in tandem on a complimentary DNA template].

A tetranucleotide was highly specifically and quantitatively ligated with a pair of flanking octanucleotides carrying both radioactive and nonradioactive reporter groups. The sequence of the ligation of oligonucleotide components in a tandem on a complementary template was studied. The first stage was found to be the enzyme-catalyzed activation of the phosphate group of octanucleotide, a tandem component that possesses a higher hybridization capacity than the tetramer. It is shown that the introduction of terminal reporter groups into octanucleotides does not decrease the efficiency of their tandem ligation.