Effect of terminal 3′-hydroxymethyl modification of an RNA primer on nonenzymatic primer extension

Abstract

The significance of the precise position of the hydroxyl at the 3′-end of an RNA primer for nonenzymatic template-directed primer extension is not well understood. We show that an RNA primer terminating in 3′-hydroxymethyl-2′,3′-dideoxy-guanosine has greatly diminished activity, suggesting that the spatial preorganization of the terminal sugar contributes significantly to the efficiency of primer extension.