RNA-Catalyzed RNA Polymerization: Accurate and General RNA-Templated Primer Extension Academic Article

abstract

• The RNA world hypothesis regarding the early evolution of life relies on the premise that some RNA sequences can catalyze RNA replication. In support of this conjecture, we describe here an RNA molecule that catalyzes the type of polymerization needed for RNA replication. The ribozyme uses nucleoside triphosphates and the coding information of an RNA template to extend an RNA primer by the successive addition of up to 14 nucleotides-more than a complete turn of an RNA helix. Its polymerization activity is general in terms of the sequence and the length of the primer and template RNAs, provided that the 3' terminus of the primer pairs with the template. Its polymerization is also quite accurate: when primers extended by 11 nucleotides were cloned and sequenced, 1088 of 1100 sequenced nucleotides matched the template.

authors

• Glasner, Margaret

altmetric score

• 83

author list (cited authors)

• Johnston, W. K., Unrau, P. J., Lawrence, M. S., Glasner, M. E., & Bartel, D. P.

citation count

• 457

complete list of authors

• Johnston, WK||Unrau, PJ||Lawrence, MS||Glasner, ME||Bartel, DP

publication date

• May 2001

publisher

• American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)  Publisher

published in

• Science  Journal

keywords

• Base Sequence
• Conserved Sequence
• Directed Molecular Evolution
• Molecular Sequence Data
• Mutagenesis
• Nucleic Acid Conformation
• RNA
• Rna, Catalytic
• Rna-dependent Rna Polymerase
• Sequence Analysis, RNA
• Substrate Specificity
• Templates, Genetic

PubMed Central ID

• 11358999

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1126/science.1060786

start page

• 1319

end page

• 1325

volume

• 292

issue

• 5520

URL

• http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1126%2Fscience.1060786