title: Cleaving DNA with DNA.
abstract: A DNA structure is described that can cleave single-stranded DNA oligonucleotides in the presence of ionic copper. This "deoxyribozyme" can self-cleave or can operate as a bimolecular complex that simultaneously makes use of duplex and triplex interactions to bind and cleave separate DNA substrates. Bimolecular deoxyribozyme-mediated strand scission proceeds with a kobs of 0.2 min-1, whereas the corresponding uncatalyzed reaction could not be detected. The duplex and triplex recognition domains can be altered, making possible the targeted cleavage of single-stranded DNAs with different nucleotide sequences. Several small synthetic DNAs were made to function as simple "restriction enzymes" for the site-specific cleavage of single-stranded DNA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8103, USA.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Carmi
authors.forename: S R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Balkhi
authors.forename: R R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Breaker
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D002384:Catalysis; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D017931:DNA Primers; D004277:DNA, Single-Stranded / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D007700:Kinetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013379:Substrate Specificity
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004277:DNA, Single-Stranded; D004247:DNA