The title compound 1 has been synthesized via bicyclic lactone 3 and amine 9 as the key intermediates. X-ray crystallography reveals the bicyclic skeleton of 1 to adopt a boat-like (3'exo) conformation. Oligodeoxyribonucleotides incorporating up to 10 building blocks 1 in place of natural thymidine are still capable of binding to complementary DNA or RNA, albeit with lower affinity than the unmodified parent compounds.