Hydrolytic stability of a phosphate-branched oligonucleotide incorporating a ribonucleoside 3'-phosphotriester unit.

A phosphate-branched oligonucleotide has been prepared by using an appropriately protected trinucleoside phosphotriester building block in conventional solid-phase synthesis. Hydrolysis of the branched oligonucleotide has been followed over a wide pH range. Comparison of the present results with those previously obtained for simpler analogues indicates that a trinucleoside 3',3',5'-monophosphate, when embedded in an oligonucleotide structure, is stabilized toward hydroxide-ion catalyzed cleavage by more than one order of magnitude, lending some support to the feasibility of existence of phosphate-branched RNA X in biological systems.