Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) oligomers where one of the repeating backbone units is extended with a methylene group to either N-(2-aminoethyl)- beta -alanine or N-(3-aminopropyl)glycine were prepared. Alternatively, the linker to the nucleobase was extended from methylenecarbonyl to ethylenecarbonyl. The thermal stability of the hybrids between these PNA oligomers and complementary DNA oligonucleotides was significantly lower than that of the corresponding complexes involving unmodified PNA. However, the sequence selectivity was retained. Thymidyl decamers with all N-(2-aminoethyl)- beta -alanine or N-(3-aminopropyl)glycine backbones were prepared and shown to be unable to hybridize to the complementary (dA) sub(10) oligonucleotides, whereas a PNA decamer containing only ethylenecarbonyl linkers between the nucleobases and the N-(2-aminoethyl)glycine backbone showed weak but sequence-specific affinity for complementary DNA. All hybrids involving homopyrimidine PNA oligomers exhibited (PNA) sub(2)/DNA stoichiometry, whereas mixed-sequence PNA oligomers formed PNA/DNA duplexes. The preferred binding direction between the modified PNA and DNA in the duplex motifs was antiparallel, as previously reported for complexes involving unmodified PNA.