A reverse transcriptase ribozyme
Gerald F Joyce, Biswajit Samanta
The Salk Institute, United States
SHORT REPORT Sep 26, 2017
Abstract
A highly evolved RNA polymerase ribozyme was found to also be capable of functioning as a reverse transcriptase, an activity that has never been demonstrated before for RNA. This activity is thought to have been crucial for the transition from RNA to DNA genomes during the early history of life on Earth, when it similarly could have arisen as a secondary function of an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. The reverse transcriptase ribozyme can incorporate all four dNTPs and can generate products containing up to 32 deoxynucleotides . It is likely that this activity could be improved through evolution, ultimately enabling the synthesis of complete DNA genomes. DNA is much more stable compared to RNA and thus provides a larger and more secure repository for genetic information.
Article and author information
Author details
Gerald F Joyce
The Salk Institute, La Jolla, United States
Competing interests The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
ORCID icon 0000-0003-0603-2874
The Salk Institute, La Jolla, United States
Competing interests The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Funding
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NNX14AK15G)
Gerald F Joyce
Simons Foundation (287624)
Gerald F Joyce
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
Andrew D Ellington, Reviewing Editor, University of Texas at Austin, United States
Publication history
Received: August 10, 2017 Accepted: September 26, 2017
Accepted Manuscript published: September 26, 2017 (version 1)
Copyright
© 2017, Joyce & Samanta
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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