The efficiency of chemical ligation method have been demonstrated by assembling a number of DNA duplexes with modified sugar phosphate backbone. Condensation on a tetradecanucleotide template of hexa(penta)- and undecanucleotides differing only in the terminal nucleoside residue have been performed using water-soluble carbodiimide as a condensing agent. As was shown by comparing the efficiency of chemical ligation of single-strand breaks in those duplexes, the reaction rate rises 70 or 45 times if the 3'-OH group is substituted with an amino or phosphate group (the yield of products with a phosphoramidate or pyrophosphate bond is 96-100% in 6 d). Changes in the conformation of reacting groups caused by mismatched base pairs (A.A, A.C) as well as the hybrid rU.dA pair or an unpaired base make the template-directed condensation less effective. The thermal stability of DNA duplexes was assayed before and after the chemical ligation. Among all of the modified duplexes, only the duplex containing 3'-rU in the nick was found to be a substrate of T4 DNA ligase.

Three circularly permuted variants of Escherichia coli dihydrofolate reductase genes were constructed. Linkers coding tri- and pentapeptides were used to connect the natural 5'- and 3'-terminal ends. Only one variant of circularly permuted protein with tripeptide linker and the cleavage of the peptide bond between 107 and 108 amino acid residues was produced in a good yield. The expressed protein was insoluble in the cells, but at pH 8.0 and higher the isolated protein was soluble. Enzymatic assay and physical studies have shown that permuted dihydrofolate reductase has a destabilized tertiary structure. Only the addition of the natural substrates or inhibitors lead to the protein with the native-like structure and functional activity.

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