Synthesis and hybridization studies on two complementary nona(2'-O-methyl)ribonucleotides.

2'-O-Methyl derivatives of the common ribonucleosides except for guanosine were synthesized via the 2'-O-methylation of appropriately-protected nucleosides with CH3I in the presence of Ag2O. The 2'-O-methylguanosine derivative was prepared by the monomethylation of a 2',3'-cis-diol system with diazomethane. These derivatives were converted to protected 2'-O-methylribonucleoside 3'-phosphates and used for oligonucleotide synthesis on polymer supports. Thus, oligo(2'-O-methyl-ribonucleotides) having the sequence identical to the consensus sequence of the 5'-splice junction CAGGUAAGU and its complement were synthesized in a stepwise manner using the phosphotriester method. Thermal stabilities (Tm's) of the duplex of these 2'-O-methyl ribo-oligomers and eight related duplexes containing ribo- or deoxyribo-oligomers were examined. It was found that the 2'-O-methyl oligoribonucleotides can be utilized as an alternative to an oligoribonucleotide probe in RNA hybridizations as the hybrid formed has a high, or a higher Tm, the probe is much easier to synthesize and it is less likely to be enzymatically degraded.