2'-O-alkyloligoribonucleotides: probes for studying the biochemistry and cell biology of RNA processing

Chemical synthesis of 2'-O-alkyloligoribonucleotides has been developed and shown to have important applications in the study of RNA processing and the analysis of structure-function relationships in RNA molecules. Antisense oligonucleotides made of 2'-O-alkyl RNA are nuclease-resistant and form extremely stable and specific hybrids with complementary RNA target sequences. This makes them very useful probes for labelling RNAs, for functional studies on the mechanism of RNA processing reactions and for affinity chromatography of RNA-protein complexes. The use of 2'-O-alkyloligoribonucleotides thus provides an important alternative strategy to immunological methods for biochemists wishing to modify, purify, deplete, inactivate or in situ-label RNAs or RNPs. I very much hope that the work I have described here may have helped to stimulate other workers in the RNA field to consider applying these techniques to further their own research interests.