Abstract: The invention provides a method and materials for sorting polynucleotides with oligonucleotide tags. Oligonucleotide tags of the invention are capable of hybridizing to complementary oligomeric compounds consisting of subunits having enhanced binding strength and specificity as compared to natural oligonucleotides. Such complementary oligomeric compounds are referred to herein as "tag complements." Subunits of tag complements may consist of monomers of non-natural nucleotide analogs, referred to herein as "antisense monomers" or they may comprise oligomers having lengths in the range of 3 to 6 nucleotides or analogs thereof, including antisense monomers, the oligomers being selected from a minimally cross-hybridizing set. In such a set, a duplex made up of an oligomer of the set and the complement of any other oligomer of the set contains at least two mismatches.

Abstract: Plasmid vectors are provided that carry complementary DNA (cDNA) clones cng for polypeptides exhibiting murine interleukin-2 activity. One of these polypeptides is 168 amino acids in length, including a potential leader sequence of about 19 amino acids. The cDNA is derived from messenger RNA isolated from a mouse T-cell line after activation with concanavalin A. The cDNA was cloned by incorporation into a plasmid vector, which is then transformed into E. coli. The plasmid vector also contained DNA segments from the SV40 virus, permitting expression of the cDNA after transfection into a mammalian host cell, such as monkey COS-7 cells.