Zip Nucleic Acids: new high affinity oligonucleotides as potent primers for PCR and reverse transcription.

ABSTRACT: Most nucleic acid-based technologies rely upon sequence recognition between an oligonucleotide and its nucleic acid target. With the aim of improving hybridization by decreasing electrostatic repulsions between the negatively charged strands, novel modified oligonucleotides named Zip nucleic acids (ZNAs) were recently developed. ZNAs are oligonucleotide-oligocation conjugates whose global charge is modulated by the number of cationic spermine moieties grafted on the oligonucleotide. It was demonstrated that the melting temperature of a hybridized ZNA is easily predictable and increases linearly with the length of the oligocation. Furthermore, ZNAs retain the ability to discriminate between a perfect match and a single base-pair-mismatched complementary sequence. Using quantitative PCR, we

SUBMITTER: Moreau V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2770653 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature