This application relates to monomers of the general formula (I) for the preparation of PNA (peptide nucleic acid) oligomers and provides method for the synthesis of both predefined sequence PNA oligomers and random sequence PNA oligomers: ##STR1##

wherein

E is nitrogen or C—R; J is sulfur or oxygen;

R, R1, R2, R3, R4 is independently H, halogen, alkyl, nitro, nitrile, alkoxy, halogenated alkyl, halogenated alkoxy, phenyl or halogenated phenyl,

R5 is H or protected or unprotected side chain of natural or unnatural -amino acid; and

B is a natural or unnatural nucleobase, wherein when said nucleobase has an exocyclic amino function, said function is protected by protecting group which is labile to acids but stable to weak to medium bases in the presence of thiol.