STUDIES ON POLYNUCLEOTIDES .70. SYNTHETIC DEOXYRIBOPOLYNUCLEOTIDES AS TEMPLATES FOR DNA POLYMERASE OF ESCHERICHIA COLI - DNA-LIKE POLYMERS CONTAINING REPEATING TETRANUCLEOTIDE SEQUENCES

Chemically synthesized short-chain deoxyribopolynucleotides with repeating tetranucleotide sequences serve as templates for the E. coli DNA polymerase. Thus, in the presence of a mixture of the complementary deoxyribopolynucleotides, d(TATC)3 and d(TAGA)2, and the four deoxyribonucleoside triphosphates, the enzyme catalyzes the synthesis of the double-stranded DNA-like polymer poly dTATC: dGATA. Similarly, a mixture of the complementary deoxyribo-oligonucleotides d(TTAC)3 plus d(TAAG)2 initiates the synthesis of poly dTTAC:dGTAA. The two DNA-like polymers are shown by nearest-neighbor frequency analyses to possess perfectly repeating tetranucleotide sequences contained in the respective short-chain template molecules. The high molecular weight nature of the two new DNA-like polymers with repeating tetranucleotide sequences is established in the following paper of this series.