title: TNA synthesis by DNA polymerases.
abstract: 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 alpha-l-threofuranosyl thymidine-3'-triphosphate as a substrate.
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.
authors.forename: John C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Chaput
authors.forename: Jack W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Szostak
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000138:chemical synthesis*; D004259:DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D007700:Kinetics; D009841:Oligonucleotides / Q000138:chemical synthesis*; D013780:Tetroses / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D009841:Oligonucleotides; D013780:Tetroses; D004247:DNA; D004259:DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase; C073321:erythrose