Versatile strategy for oligonucleotide derivatization. Introduction of lanthanide(III) chelates to oligonucleotides.

[reaction: see text] Novel nucleosidic phosphoramidite blocks were synthesized by a Mitsunobu reaction between 2'-deoxy-5'-O-(4,4'-dimethoxytrityl)uridine and a primary alcohol containing a conjugate group in its structure (a protected functional group, an organic dye, or a precursor of a lanthanide(III) chelate) followed by phosphitylation. They were used in machine-assisted DNA synthesis in the standard manner. A slightly modified deprotection procedure was used for the preparation of oligonucleotide conjugates tethered to lanthanide(III) chelates. For the latter application one non-nucleosidic block was also synthesized.