The effect of spacer, linkage and solid support on the synthesis of oligonucleotides

The effects of spacers on the synthesis of various chain- length oligonucleotides was tested. Fifteen different spacers were prepared on solid support systems and from the data obtained, it was inferred that: a) the length of the spacer is important for increasing purity and yield of the final product; b) there is a high probability that folded conformations in the spacer may increase the non-homogeneity of the product and; c) spacers made up of a fully-extended conformation mediate a high purity, and only suports with a large pore size produced excellent results.