HIGH-PERFORMANCE AFFINITY-CHROMATOGRAPHY OF OLIGONUCLEOTIDES ON NUCLEIC-ACID ANALOG IMMOBILIZED SILICA-GEL COLUMNS

The nucleic acid analogues poly(9-vinyladenine) (PVAd), poly(9-adenylethyl methacrylate) and poly(thymylethyl methacrylate) (PTM) were chemically bonded to porous silica gel, which had been pretreated with 3-trimethoxysilylpropyl methacrylate, by free radical copolymerization to produce novel packing materials for affinity chromatographic columns. The columns separated nucleosides and nucleotide dimers on the basis of hydrophobic interaction using an aqueous buffer and complementary hydrogen bonding interaction in methanol as an eluent. The PVAd- and PTM-silica gel columns gave a nucleobase-selective separation of oligonucleotides differing in length from mixtures of oligoadenylic and oligouridylic acids. On the PVAd-silica gel column terminal phosphate isomers of oligouridylic acid up to seven mer were resolved and the elution order of the isomers was different from that on an ODS column.