10mers

A 10mer is a nucleic acid sequence composed of ten nucleotides. These nucleotides can be deoxyribonucleotides in the case of DNA, or ribonucleotides in the case of RNA. In DNA, the nucleotides are adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). In RNA, thymine is replaced by uracil (U). Thus, a 10mer DNA sequence might be represented as AGCTAGCTAG, and a 10mer RNA sequence as AUCGAUCGAU.

10mers are often used in molecular biology research. They can serve as primers for polymerase chain reactions (PCR), which are used to amplify specific DNA sequences. In this application, a 10mer is designed to bind to a complementary sequence on the target DNA, initiating the synthesis of a new DNA strand. Short sequences like 10mers are also utilized in gene silencing techniques, such as small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), although siRNAs are typically longer. Furthermore, 10mers can be synthesized with modified nucleotides for various experimental purposes, including diagnostic probes or research tools to study nucleic acid interactions. The specific sequence of a 10mer dictates its potential binding partners and functions within biological systems.