Oligonucleotides are used in many biological and forensic applications as sequence-specific binding agents can help in identifying presence of a specific target DNA sequence. Synthetic oligonucleotides are short stretches of single stranded DNA fragments assembled by chemical synthesis. There is hardly a field in biology in which synthetic DNA has not been used or does not have the potential to be used. Synthetic oligonucleotides are widely used in the diagnosis of human genetic diseases. Oligonucleotide probes are used to detect single base pair changes within human genome. For instance, sickle cell anemia which is caused by a transversion (A^T) within β-globin gene can be analyzed with labeled oligonucleotides. The increasing applications of synthesized oligonucleotides is likely to foster the growth of market in the coming years.
