Commercially available 5'-DMT phosphoramidites as reagents for the synthesis of vinylphosphonate-linked oligonucleic acids

[reaction: see text]. Commercially available cyanoethyl phosphoramidites derived from T, d(C), d(A), and d(G) were hydrolyzed (1H-tetrazole, MeCN/H2O) to give the corresponding H-phosphonates in excellent yields. Palladium(0)-catalyzed cross-coupling of each of these with the thymidine-derived vinylbromide 2 afforded the corresponding vinylphosphonate-linked dimers TT, d(C)T, d(A)T, and d(G)T in modest to good yields. The TT dimer was further elaborated to give a 5'-DMT-TT-3'-CEP building block, and this was used in the automated synthesis of the TpTTpT tetramer.