Modern Machine-Aided Methods Of Oligodeoxyribonucleotide Synthesis

Abstract During the 1980s the development of efficient automated methods of solid phase oligonucleotide synthesis has had a major impact in the fields of molecular biology, biotechnology, and biological chemistry (1). Advances in nucleic acid chemistry have made possible the synthesis of oligonucleotides with modified backbones, non-standard bases, or with non-radioactive labels attached to the 3’-or 5’-termini (2). The synthesis of ribo-oligonucleotides has recently become possible and this will undoubtedly have far reaching implications in molecular biology (3, 4). New techniques of DNA sequencing have now been fully automated and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has facilitated the detection and amplification of very small amounts of natural DNA (5). Novel and imaginative applications and modifications of oligonucleotides emerge at a remarkable rate and this is clearly a very exciting era for nucleic acid chemists. Some of the most significant recent advances in the field of synthetic oligonucleotides are referred to in subsequent chapters.