A new general approach for the simultaneous chemical synthesis of large numbers of oligonucleotides: segmental solid supports.

A new approach is described which will allow the simultaneous synthesis of large numbers of pre-defined oligonucleotide chains. No machine aid is needed. The simultaneous syntheses can be performed by one person and do not require much more time than is currently needed for the synthesis of just one oligonucleotide in existing strategies. The general idea is the following: One uses noninterchangeable polymeric entities from each of which enough OD units can be isolated after completion of the syntheses. Whenever growing chains on different entities have to be elongated with the same building block these entities are gathered in the same reaction vessel. After such a common reaction cycle the entities are separated and now combined according to the next common building blocks etc. The practicability of this approach is demonstrated by the synthesis of d(T-A-A-T-A-T-T-A) and d(T-A-G-T-A-C-T-A) on cellulose filter disks following the phosphotriester approach.