| abstract |
Chimeric oligonucleotides useful as agents to effect specific genetic alterations in a target nucleic acid located in a living organism during homologous recombination are disclosed. Such oligonucleotides are comprised of first and second target complementary portions containing nucleotide analogs, a repair portion of DNA located between the target complementary portions, and first, second, and third stem portions. The oligonucleotides of the invention further include nucleobase analogs, sugar analogs, phosphodiester analogs, modified loop portions, 5'-end modifications, 3'-end modifications, and/or conjugates with various practically useful moieties. In addition, unusually high conformational stability of the double-hairpin motif of chimeric oligonucleotides is observed and measured by thermal melting. |