A novel method of synthesizing a structural gene or gene fragment, consisting of the first synthesis of a single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), has been developed. As a preliminary test of this method, four synthetic genes or gene fragments have been synthesized. The first one with 396 base pairs (b.p.) codes for the mature rbcS from wheat, the next two with 370 and 342 b.p. respectively, for two half molecules of a gene for trichosanthin and the last one with 315 b.p. for the N-terminal 1-102 residues of human prourokinase. In all these syntheses, a plus-stranded DNA of the target gene was generally assembled by a stepwise or one step T4 DNA ligase reaction of six oligonucleotides (A, *pB, *pC, *pD, *pE and *pF) of 30-71 nucleotides long in the presence of two terminal complementary oligonucleotides (Ab' and eF') and three short inter-fragment complementary oligonucleotides (bc, cd and de). After purification, the synthetic ssDNA was inserted into a cloning vector, pWR13. The resulting product was directly used to transform a host cell. The structure of the cloned synthetic gene was confirmed by DNA sequence analysis.

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This article described the preparation and the protection of 3′‐DMP and dihydrouridine (Dr) as well as the synthesis of four oligoribonucleotides composed of them. DMP and Dr were obtained by hydrogenation of 3′‐UMP and Ur under acidic conditions in the presence of platinum dioxide. They were monomethoxytritylated and benzoylated to (MeOTr)‐Dbzp and (MeOTr) Dbzs, respectively. The latter was converted to Dbzs, by demonomethoxytritylation. The oligoribonucleotides containing DMP or Dr—ApGpD, DpApG, ApGpDpC and ApGpDpCpGpG were synthesized via phosphodiester approach and DCC was used as condensing reagent. DpApG was also synthesized via phosphotriester approach and TPST, MSTe, MSNI and MSNT were used as condensing reagents for a preliminary comparison of the coupling yields. These synthetic oligoribonucleotides were checked for purity and nucleotide sequences as usual. ApGpDpCpGpG and DpApG had been used for enzymatic synthesis of ApGpDpCpGpGpDpApG, which had been in turn successfully used for the total syntheses of the 5′‐half molecule and the whole molecule of yeast alanine t‐RNA