Artificial nucleotide codons for enzymatic DNA synthesis

Abstract

Herein, we report the high-yielding solid-phase synthesis of unmodified and chemically modified trinucleotide triphosphates (dN₃TPs). These synthetic codons can be used for enzymatic DNA synthesis provided their scaffold is stabilized with phosphorothioate units. Enzymatic synthesis with three rather than one letter nucleotides will be useful to produce xenonucleic acids (XNAs) and for in vitro selection of modified functional nucleic acids.