The Separation, Estimation, and Characterization of Alkali-Stable Oligonucleotides Derived From Commercial Ribonucleate Preparations

Methods are described which are suitable for the quantitative analysis of the alkali-stable oligonucleotides which result from the hydrolysis of ribonucleates in molar alkali at room temperature for 90 hours. The alkali-stability of the oligonucleotides is presumed to result from 2′-O-methyl substitution of ribose residues and this assumption is supported by the relatively slight reactivity of the purine 2′-O-methyl ribosides in the orcinol color reaction for pentoses. The existence of all of the 16 possible dinucleotides as part of ribonucleate chains has been established. The quantity of alkali-stable trinucleotides is much greater than would be expected for a random spatial distribution of 2′-O-methyl ribosides in ribonucleate chains.