New ligase-derived RNA polymerase ribozymes (original) (raw)

1. MICHAEL S. LAWRENCE and
2. DAVID P. BARTEL
3. Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research/Biology Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA

Abstract

The search is underway for a catalytic RNA molecule capable of self-replication. Finding such a ribozyme would lend crucial support to the RNA World hypothesis, which holds that very early life-forms relied on RNA for both replicating and storing genetic information. We previously reported an RNA polymerase isolated from a pool of variants of an existing RNA ligase ribozyme. Here we report eight additional ligase-derived polymerase ribozymes isolated from this pool. Because each of them is a new potential starting point for further in vitro evolution and engineering, together they substantially enrich the set of candidates from which an RNA replicase ribozyme might eventually emerge.

• catalytic RNA
• ribozymes
• in vitro selection
• polymerases
• replicases
• RNA World hypothesis

Footnotes

• Article published online ahead of print. Article and publication date are at http://www.rnajournal.org/cgi/doi/10.1261/rna.2110905.

• • Accepted May 20, 2005.
  • Received May 6, 2005.

• Copyright 2005 by RNA Society

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