Two general methods which exploit the reactivity of sulfhydryl groups toward maleimides are described for the synthesis of oligonucleotide-enzyme conjugates for use as nonradioisotopic hybridization probes. In the first approach, 6-maleimidohexanoic acid succinimido ester was used to couple 5'-thiolated oligonucleotide to calf intestine alkaline phosphatase to provide a 1:1 conjugate in 80-85% yield. The second strategy employed N,N'-1,2-phenylenedimaleimide to cross-link thiolated horseradish peroxidase or beta-galactosidase with a 5'-thiolated oligonucleotide in 58% and 65% yields, respectively. The oligonucleotide-alkaline phosphatase conjugate was able to detect 6 amol of target DNA in 4 h, while the horseradish peroxidase conjugate was found to be 40-fold lower in its sensitivity of detection by using dye precipitation assays.