1932

Abstract

Just as Darwinian evolution in nature has led to the development of many sophisticated enzymes, Darwinian evolution in vitro has proven to be a powerful approach for obtaining similar results in the laboratory. This review focuses on the development of nucleic acid enzymes starting from a population of random-sequence RNA or DNA molecules. In order to illustrate the principles and practice of in vitro evolution, two especially well-studied categories of catalytic nucleic acid are considered: RNA enzymes that catalyze the template-directed ligation of RNA and DNA enzymes that catalyze the cleavage of RNA. The former reaction, which involves attack of a 2′- or 3′-hydroxyl on the α-phosphate of a 5′-triphosphate, is more difficult. It requires a comparatively larger catalytic motif, containing more nucleotides than can be sampled exhaustively within a starting population of random-sequence RNAs. The latter reaction involves deprotonation of the 2′-hydroxyl adjacent to the cleavage site, resulting in cleaved products that bear a 2′,3′-cyclic phosphate and 5′-hydroxyl. The difficulty of this reaction, and therefore the complexity of the corresponding DNA enzyme, depends on whether a catalytic cofactor, such as a divalent metal cation or small molecule, is present in the reaction mixture.

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/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.biochem.73.011303.073717
2004-07-01
2024-03-28
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  • Article Type: Review Article
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