TNA Synthesis by DNA Polymerases

Threose nucleic acid (TNA), which has a repeat unit one atom shorter than that of DNA, is capable of Watson−Crick base pairing with DNA, RNA, and TNA. Because of its chemical simplicity, TNA is considered to be a possible progenitor of RNA. As an initial step toward developing the molecular tools ne...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the American Chemical Society 2003-08, Vol.125 (31), p.9274-9275
Main Authors: Chaput, John C, Szostak, Jack W
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analytical, structural and metabolic biochemistry
Biological and medical sciences
DNA - chemical synthesis
DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase - chemistry
DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase - metabolism
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects, investigation methods
Kinetics
Nucleic acids
Oligonucleotides - chemical synthesis
Tetroses - chemistry
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Summary:Threose nucleic acid (TNA), which has a repeat unit one atom shorter than that of DNA, is capable of Watson−Crick base pairing with DNA, RNA, and TNA. Because of its chemical simplicity, TNA is considered to be a possible progenitor of RNA. As an initial step toward developing the molecular tools necessary to investigate the functional capabilities of TNA by in vitro selection, we have screened a variety of DNA polymerases for TNA synthesis activity on a DNA template. We wish to report that several polymerases show surprisingly good ability to synthesize TNA using α-l-threofuranosyl thymidine-3‘-triphosphate as a substrate.
ISSN:0002-7863
1520-5126
DOI:10.1021/ja035917n