Nucleic acids may be labeled by intercalating the alkylating intercalation moiety of a labeling reagent into a partially double-stranded nucleic acid to form a complex and activating the complex to cause covalent bonding between the reagent and the nucleic acid. Preferably, the labeled nucleic acid is a hybridization probe for detecting nucleic acid sequences capable of hybridizing with a hybridizing region of the nucleic acid. Also preferably the label moiety is non-radioactive. The labeling reagent is of the formula: where A is an alkylating intercalation moiety, B is a divalent organic moiety of the formula: ##STR1## where Y is O, NH or N--CHO, x is a number from 1 to 4, y is a number from 2 to 4, and L is a monovalent label moiety, wherein B is exclusive of any portion of the intercalation and label moieties. Preferably A is a 4-methylene-substituted psoralen moiety, and most preferably A is a 4'-methylene-substituted-4,5', 8-trimethylpsoralen moiety and L is biotin. This patent application is a divisional application of copending U.S. Ser. No. 791,332 filed Oct. 25, 1985, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,617,261, which is a continuation-in-part application (CIP) of copending U.S. Ser. No. 683,263 filed Dec. 18, 1984, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,789 which is a CIP of copending U.S. Ser. No. 591,811 filed Mar. 21, 1984, now abandoned. This patent application is also related to copending U.S. application Ser. No. 791,323 filed Oct. 25, 1985.
The invention provides methods for attaching detectable labels to the N.sup.7 -formyl group, of imidazole ring-opened alkylated purines and purine derivatives, directly, through a linking group, or by subsequent derivatization of a blocking group. The invention provides simple and efficient methods for labeling polynucleotides. In addition, the invention provides derivatized ring-opened alkylated purines and purine derivatives, including reagents for chemical and enzymatic synthesis of detectably labeled polynucleotides.
The invention provides methods for attaching detectable labels to the N.sup.7 -formyl group, of imidazole ring-opened alkylated purines and purine derivatives, directly, through a linking group, or by subsequent derivatization of a blocking group. The invention provides simple and efficient methods for labeling polynucleotides. In addition, the invention provides derivatized ring-opened alkylated purines and purine derivatives, including reagents for chemical and enzymatic synthesis of detectably labeled polynucleotides.
The present invention relates to a process for the rapid and simple detection of mutations in DNA and differences between DNA sequences. This competitive oligonucleotide priming system can be used for the detection of any differences between DNA sequences for which a DNA sequence is known.
A method for assaying nucleic acids or similar compounds comprises binding a sample such as a nucleic acid to phosphatase; reacting the phosphatase with a 3-hydroxy-2-naphthoic acid-2'-phenyl anilide phosphate; irradiating the reaction product with an excited light; and detecting fluorescence emitted therefrom.
The presence or absence of a nucleic acid sequence associated with one or more related viruses in a sample containing one or more nucleic acids and suspected of containing such sequence can be detected by amplifying the sequence using primers to form extension products as templates and detecting the amplified product if it is present. This may be accomplished by adding a labeled hybridization probe to the amplified product either free in solution or after immobilization on a solid support. Preferably the virus constitutes AIDs viruses and hepadnaviruses.
