Twin ribozyme mediated removal of nucleotides from an internal RNA site.
Over the past two decades, the structure and mechanism of catalytic RNA have been extensively studied; now ribozymes are understood well enough to turn them into useful tools. After we have demonstrated the twin ribozyme mediated insertion of additional nucleotides into a predefined position of a suitable substrate RNA, we here show that a similar type of twin ribozyme is also capable of mediating the opposite reaction: the site-specific removal of nucleotides. In particular, we have designed a twin ribozyme that supports the deletion of four uridine residues from a given RNA substrate. This reaction is a kind of RNA recombination that in the specific context of gene therapy mimics, at the level of RNA, the correction of insertion mutations. As a result of the twin ribozyme driven reaction, 17% of substrate are converted into the four nucleotides shorter product RNA.
Drude
Irene
I
Ernst Moritz Arndt Universität Greifswald, Institut für Biochemie, Bioorganische Chemie, Felix Hausdorff Str. 4, 17487 Greifswald, Germany.
Vauléon
Stéphanie
S
Müller
Sabine
S
D001665:Binding Sites; D004789:Enzyme Activation; D005818:Genetic Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D009711:Nucleotides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D016337:RNA, Catalytic / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D011995:Recombination, Genetic