# Introduction

Development of XNAString package aims at enabling efficient manipulation of modified oligonucleotide sequences. The package inherits some of the functionalities from Biostrings package. In contrary to Biostrings sequences, XNAString classes allow for description of base sequence, sugar and backbone in a single object. XNAString is able to capture single stranded oligonucleotides, siRNAs, PNAs, shRNAs, gRNAs and synthetic mRNAs, and enable users to apply sequence-manipulating Bioconductor packages to their analysis. XNAString can read and write a HELM notation, compute alphabet frequency, align and match targets.