Oligonucleotide

## General Information (more on wikipidia)

Species Molecular Weight (g/mol) Density (g/L) Radius (m) Reference
X MW D R [1]

Oligonucleotides are short sequences of nucleotides (RNA or DNA), typically with twenty or fewer bases. Automated synthesizers allow the synthesis of oligonucleotides up to 160 to 200 bases. The length of a synthesized base is usually denoted by 'mer' (from 'Greek' meros "part"). For example, a fragment of 25 bases would be called a 25-mer. Oligonucleotides are often used as probes for detecting complementary DNA or RNA because they bind readily to their complements. Examples of procedures that use oligonucleotides are DNA microarrays, Southern blots, fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), and the synthesis of artificial genes.

Oligonucleotides composed of DNA (deoxyoligonucleotides) are often used in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a procedure that can be employed to amplify almost any piece of DNA. In this instance, the oligonucleotide is often referred to as a primer, or a short piece of DNA that binds to its complementary target sequence. This generates a place for a polymerase to bind and extend the primer by the addition of nucleotides to make a copy of the target sequence.

## Diffusion of in water:

• 13-mer probe
• Alone at 25 degrees:
• Bonded to Alexa488 at 25 degrees: $D = 8.4 \times 10^{-11}\ m^{2}/s$ [1]
• Bonded to a quantum dot (605QD) at 25 degrees: $D = 3.8 \times 10^{-12}\ m^{2}/s$ [1]

## Diffusion of in PBS:

• $D~= \times 10^{-10}\ m^{2}/s$

## Diffusion of in cellular matrix:

• $D~= \times 10^{-10}\ m^{2}/s$
Bibliography
1. Analyst: 2006: 131: 484-488: Chun-Yang Zhang and Lawrence W. Johnson
2. full source reference