Transiently bonding drag-tags for separation modalities

摘要

The invention relates transiently attaching drag-tags to molecules during electrophoresis. The invention includes running buffers having drag-tags that transiently attach to lipophilic moieties attached to the molecules. The lipophilic moieties can be covalently or ionically bonded to the molecules. One particular aspect of the invention is a nucleoside analog or a nucleic acid analog comprising a lipophilic moiety. The invention is also directed to methods of separating molecules that comprise a lipophilic moiety. The methods generally comprise transiently attaching a drag-tag to the lipophilic moiety during a separation modality. These methods can be used to separate the molecules by size or weight, to measure a hydrodynamic radius of a drag-tag, or to separate a plurality of drag-tag by their hydrodynamic radius.

主权项

1. A method of transiently attaching a drag-tag to a nucleic acid, comprising:
a. elongating a nucleic acid primer on a nucleic acid template, the primer comprising a lipophilic moiety covalently attached to a nucleic acid, thereby forming a hydrophobically-labeled nucleic acid; and b. moving the hydrophobically-labeled nucleic acid through a running buffer comprising a drag-tag, wherein the drag-tag comprises a structure, and wherein the structure comprises a surfactant, a polymer or a combination thereof, wherein the lipophilic moiety is an alkyl group.