Publication Date:
2011-04-09
Description:
A critical event in the origin of life is thought to have been the emergence of an RNA molecule capable of replicating a primordial RNA "genome." Here we describe the evolution and engineering of an RNA polymerase ribozyme capable of synthesizing RNAs of up to 95 nucleotides in length. To overcome its sequence dependence, we recombined traits evolved separately in different ribozyme lineages. This yielded a more general polymerase ribozyme that was able to synthesize a wider spectrum of RNA sequences, as we demonstrate by the accurate synthesis of an enzymatically active RNA, a hammerhead endonuclease ribozyme. This recapitulates a central aspect of an RNA-based genetic system: the RNA-catalyzed synthesis of an active ribozyme from an RNA template.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Wochner, Aniela -- Attwater, James -- Coulson, Alan -- Holliger, Philipp -- MC_U105178804/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- MC_US_A024_0014/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2011 Apr 8;332(6026):209-12. doi: 10.1126/science.1200752.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 0QH, UK.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21474753" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Base Sequence
;
Biocatalysis
;
Directed Molecular Evolution
;
Genetic Engineering
;
Mutation
;
Nucleic Acid Conformation
;
RNA/*chemistry/genetics/metabolism
;
RNA Replicase/*chemistry/genetics/*metabolism
;
RNA, Catalytic/*chemistry/genetics/*metabolism
;
Selection, Genetic
;
Templates, Genetic
;
*Transcription, Genetic
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
