[Chemical reactions in double-stranded nucleic acids. III. Synthesis of terminal inverted repeats of the IS1 element].

Three 35 bp-DNA duplexes have been assembled from synthetic oligonucleotides by means of DNA ligase or 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide in two parallel series of experiments. The "top" strands of these duplexes correspond either to the imperfect (natural) or perfect terminal inverted repeats of the IS1. Tm of DNA duplexes composed of 2 to 6 different oligonucleotides were investigated by UV spectroscopy. It was shown that DNA ligase effectively joined oligonucleotides even under conditions of DNA duplex instability. However, there is a minimum duplex size (within the range of 9-15 bp) below which the enzymatic ligation is ineffective. Chemical assembly of duplexes took place only if the double helix was stable. The yield was 50% after two successive ligation cycles. Efficiency of the chemical ligation depends on the nature of the nucleotide units to be joined.