Chemical synthesis of oligo- and polynucleotides.

INTRODUCTION Genetics, a subject with diverse aspects, is here treated from the nucleic acid chemist's point of view, since nucleic acid chemists have contributed and still can contribute a great deal to the problern of genetic information, genetic transcription, and regulation (Figure 1). Synthetic polynucleotides of known composition and known sequence in many cases allow definition of a problern more closely. and more detailed questions to be answered. Polynucleotides can be synthesized by chemical synthesis, by enzymatic synthesis, or by a combination of both methods. Therefore, this paper is not confined solely to the chemical synthesis of polynucleotides.