Selective oligonucleotide and mRNA pull-down with shielded covalent probes

Abstract

Shielded covalent (SC) probes combine programmable base pairing, mol. conformation change, and activatable covalent crosslinking to achieve selective and durable capture of nucleic acid targets, including efficient discrimination of SNPs. Capture yields appear consistent with the thermodn. of probe/target hybridization, allowing rational probe design. We will demonstrate RNA pull-down using surface-immobilized SC probes, exploiting covalent target capture to remove unwanted material using stringent washes, and then reversing the crosslinks to recover the targets. RNA pull-downs using SC probes will provide a powerful framework for exploring the in vivo binding partners of RNAs.