The electrochemical detection of nucleic acid targets at low concentrations has a number of applications in diagnostics and pharmaceutical research. Self-assembled monolayers of alkanethiol-derivatized oligonucleotides on gold electrodes provide a useful platform for such detectors, and the electrocatalytic oxidation of nucleobases included in the DNA targets is a particularly sensitive method of electrochemical detection. A strategy has been developed for combining these two aspects by substituting either 7,8-dihydro-8-oxoguanine (8G) or 5-aminouridine (5U) into DNA targets. Upon hybridization of targets containing these modified nucleobases, electrocatalytic signals at probe-modified gold electrodes are observed in the presence of Os(bpy)(3)(2+), which oxidizes both 8G and 5U upon oxidation to the Os(III) state. Self-assembled monolayers were prepared on both macro (1.6 mm) and micro (25 microm) gold electrodes using published procedures involving C6-terminated alkanethiol oligonucleotides and mercaptohexanol as the diluent. The extent of electrode modification by the modified probe was assessed using radiolabeling and a standard chronocoulometry method; both approaches gave loading levels within expected ranges ((1-6) x 10(12) molecules/cm(2)). Hybridization of the modified targets where the non-native nucleobase was incorporated by solid-phase synthesis produced electrocatalytic signals from strands that were independently detected using radiolabeling and chronocoulometry. This result was used as a basis to develop an on-electrode amplification scheme where Taq polymerase was used to extend the immobilized DNA probes from solution-phase polymeric templates using modified nucleotriphosphates. This reaction produced an electrode that was modified with extended DNA containing the appropriate modified nucleotide. Radiolabeled nucleotide triphosphates were used to confirm the desired on-electrode DNA synthesis. When these electrodes were cycled in the presence of Os(bpy)(3)(2+), electrocatalytic signals were observed when as little as 40 amol (400 fM) of the desired target was present in the hybridization solution.