Forty years of in vitro evolution.
It has been 40 years since Spiegelman and co-workers demonstrated how RNA molecules can be evolved in the test tube. This result established Darwinian evolution as a chemical process and paved the way for the many directed evolution experiments that followed. Chemists can benefit from reflecting on Spiegelman's studies and the subsequent advances, which have taken the field to the brink of the generation of life itself in the laboratory. This Review summarizes the concepts and methods for the directed evolution of RNA molecules in vitro.
Joyce
Gerald F
GF
Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. gjoyce@scripps.edu
D000818:Animals; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases / Q000378:metabolism; D019020:Directed Molecular Evolution; D006801:Humans; D010641:Phenotype; D012313:RNA / Q000235:genetics*; D016337:RNA, Catalytic / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
D016337:RNA, Catalytic; D012313:RNA; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases