Selection of RNA oligonucleotides that bind to the HIV-1 leader. Radiolabelled HIV-1 leader RNA (+1–355) was incubated under dimerization conditions alone (lane 1) or in the presence of control oligonucleotides, CN1, known to stimulate dimerization (lane 2), DISSkripkin, known to inhibit dimerization (lane 3), or the selected RNA pools after 1–5 rounds of selection (lanes 4–8). The positions of dimeric (D) and monomeric (M) RNA species are indicated.