Dideoxynucleotide

Dideoxynucleotides are chain-elongating inhibitors of DNA polymerase, used in the Sanger method for DNA sequencing. They are also known as 2',3' dideoxynucleotides, and abbreviated as ddNTPs (ddGTP, ddATP, ddTTP and ddCTP).

The absence of the 3'-hydroxyl group means that, after being added by a DNA polymerase to a growing nucleotide chain, no further nucleotides can be added as no phosphodiester bond can be created based on the fact that deoxyribonucleoside triphosphates (which are the building blocks of DNA) allow DNA chain synthesis to occur through a condensation reaction between the 5' phosphate (following the cleavage of pyrophospate) of the current nucleotide with the 3' hydroxyl group of the previous nucleotide. The dideoxyribonucleotides do not have a 3' hydroxyl group, hence no further chain elongation can occur once this dideoxynucleotide is on the chain. This can lead to the termination of the DNA sequence. Thus, these molecules form the basis of the dideoxy chain-termination method of DNA sequencing, which was developed by Frederick Sanger in 1977.