Nucleotide Sequence Analysis of Polyribonucleotides by Means of Periodate Oxidation Followed by Cleavage with an Amine.

Whitfeld and Markham (1) described a method for the stepwise degradation of polyribonucleotides which involved oxidation of the vicinal hydroxyl groups of the terminal nucleoside residue to a dialdehyde by means of periodate, followed by treatment with glycine at pH 10.5 to remove the terminal base. In this way they converted GpC to 3’-GNP and cytosine. A similar procedure was applied to 5’-AMP by Brown, Fried, and Todd (2, 3), and these workers postulated that the method could be used for nucleotide sequence studies on RNA. Whitfeld (4) demonstrated the stepwise degradation of trinucleotides, such as ApGpCp, by the following steps.