Phosphoramidites

Nucleoside phosphoramidites are derivatives of natural or synthetic nucleosides that are used to synthesize oligonucleotides. As long as a nucleoside analog contains at least one hydroxy group, the use of the appropriate protecting strategy allows one to convert that to the respective phosphoramidite and to incorporate the latter into synthetic nucleic acids.  The most important feature of phosphoramidites is their ability to undergo the phosphoramidite coupling reaction in the presence of an acidic catalyst. This makes nucleoside phosphoramidites useful intermediates in oligonucleotide synthesis.