Oligonucletides can be labeled with biotin or digoxigenin* or directly labeled with alkaline phosphatase. A variety of linker arms are available as spacers to minimize steric hindrance.
Besides their importance as nucleic acid probes, biotinylated oligonucleotides are also useful for the purification of DNA binding proteins or cognate DNA molecules by specific hybridization based affinity chromatography. The biotinylated oligonucleotide can be bound to a streptavidin matrix and used for either column or spin chromatography.
