Genetic expansion diseases have been linked to the properties of triplet repeat DNA sequences during replication. The most common triplet repeats associated with such diseases are CAG, CCG, CGG, and CTG. It has been suggested that gene expansion occurs as a result of hairpin formation of long stretches of these sequences on the leading daughter strand synthesized during DNA replication [Gellibolian, R., Bacolla, A., and Wells, R. D. (1997) J. Biol. Chem. 272, 16793-7]. To test the biophysical basis for this model, oligonucleotides of general sequence (CNG)(n), where N = A, C, G, or T and n = 4, 5, 10, 15, or 25, were synthesized and characterized by circular dichroism (CD) spectropolarimetry, optical melting studies, and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The goal of these studies was to evaluate the influence of sequence context and oligomer length on their secondary structures and stabilities. The results indicate that all single oligomers, even those as short as 12 nucleotides, form stable hairpin structures at 25 degrees C. Such hairpins are characterized by the presence of N:N mismatched base pairs sandwiched between G:C base pairs in the stems and loops of three to four unpaired bases. Thermodynamic analysis of these structures reveals that their stabilities are influenced by both the sequence of the particular oligomer and its length. Specifically, the stability order of CGG > CTG > CAG > CCG was observed. In addition, longer oligomers were found to be more stable than shorter oligomers of the same sequence. However, a stability plateau above 45 nucleotides suggests that the length dependence reaches a maximum value where the stability of the G:C base pairs can no longer compensate the instability of the N:N mismatches in the stems of the hairpins. The results are discussed in terms of the above model proposed for gene expansion.