A COMPARISON OF MEASURED AND CALCULATED SINGLE-STRANDED AND DOUBLE-STRANDED OLIGODEOXYNUCLEOTIDE EXTINCTION COEFFICIENTS

The hyperchromicity resulting from exhaustive hydrolysis of several si ngle-stranded and double-stranded oligodeoxynucleotides (ODN) with sna ke venom phosphodiesterase or snake venom phosphodiesterase/DNase I wa s used to measure the ODN's extinction coefficient at 260 nm. These ex tinction coefficients were compared with those obtained using nonempir ical approximations. For the oligodeoxynucleotides investigated, the n onempirical approximations yielded extinction coefficients within 20% of the measured values. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.