Sequence analysis of nonradioactive RNA fragments by periodate-phosphatase digestion and chemical tritium labeling: characterization of large oligonucleotides and oligonucleotides containing modified nucleosides.

A tritium derivative method for sequence analysis of polyribonucleotides is detailed, which is based on borotritide reduction of oligonucleotide dialdehydes generated by treatment of polyribonucleotides with alkaline phosphatase and excess periodate at pH 8 (borate buffer; no primary amine present in the reaction mixture). While neither phosphatase nor periodate possess any intrinsic exonuclease activity their combination mimics an RNA-specific exonuclease ("pseudo-exonuclease"). Procedures are described for separation and characterization of tritiumlabeled oligonucleotide derivatives. The sequence is deduced by identification of labeled 3'-termini following separation of the reduced nucleotide intermediates according to chain length. The sensitivity of the method is indicated by the fact that as little as 0.01 O.D.260 unit of a nonradioactive decanucleotide is sufficient for sequence determination.