Locked Analog Oligos

Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) was first described by Wengel and co-workers in 1998¹ as a novel class of conformationally restricted oligonucleotide analogues. LNA is a bicyclic nucleic acid where a ribonucleoside is linked between the 2’-oxygen and the 4’-carbon atoms with a methylene unit. Oligonucleotides containing LNA exhibit unprecedented thermal stabilities towards complementary DNA and RNA², which allows excellent mismatch discrimination. In fact, the high binding affinity of LNA oligos allows for the use of short probes in, for example, SNP genotyping³, allele specific PCR and mRNA sample preparation. LNA is recommended for use in any hybridization assay that requires high specificity and/or reproducibility, e.g., dual labelled probes, in situ hybridization probes, molecular beacons and PCR primers. Furthermore, LNA offers the possibility to adjust Tm values of primers and probes in multiplex assays. LNA can be mixed with DNA and RNA, as well as other nucleic acid analogues, modifiers and labels. LNA oligonucleotides are water soluble, and can be separated by gel electrophoresis and precipitated by ethanol.

Glen Research is pleased to offer these highly useful reagents - Locked Analog (LA) Phosphoramidites - as tools for this technology.

References

(1a)A.A. Koshkin, S.K. Singh, P. Nielsen, V.K. Rajwanshi, R. Kumar, M. Meldgaard, C.E. Olsen, and J. Wengel, Tetrahedron,1998, 54, 3607-3630.
(1b) S.K. Singh, P. Nielsen, A.A. Koshkin, and J. Wengel, Chem. Comm., 1998, (4), 455-456. 
(2) L. Kværnø and J. Wengel, Chem. Comm., 1999, (7), 657-658.
(3) P. Mouritzen, A.T. Nielsen, H.M. Pfundheller, Y. Choleva, L. Kongsbak, and S. Møller, Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics, 2003, 3(1), 27-38.