Functional tuning of nucleic acids by chemical modifications: tailored oligonucleotides as drugs, devices, and diagnostics.

Chemical modifications of nucleic acids present vast opportunities for extending the functions and properties of these biomolecules. In general, efforts invested in this direction pertain to the introduction of reactive functional groups for further derivatizations of oligonucleotides with numerous reporter groups and for equipping nucleic acids with catalytic chemical moieties. This review deals with representative chemical modifications in the nucleobases, sugars, and the phosphate ester backbone and their application from novel catalytic RNA selection to nucleic acid-based biosensors.