An RNA polymerase ribozyme that synthesizes its own ancestor

Chemical fidelity of an RNA polymerase ribozyme

Amplification of RNA by an RNA polymerase ribozyme.

In all extant life, genetic information is stored in nucleic acids that are replicated by polymerase proteins. In the hypothesized RNA world, before the evolution of genetically encoded proteins, ancestral organisms contained RNA genes that were replicated by an RNA polymerase ribozyme. In an effort toward reconstructing RNA-based life in the laboratory, in vitro evolution was used to improve d...

Syn5 RNA polymerase synthesizes precise run-off RNA products

The enzyme predominantly used for in vitro run-off RNA synthesis is bacteriophage T7 RNA polymerase. T7 RNA polymerase synthesizes, in addition to run-off products of precise length, transcripts with an additional non-base-paired nucleotide at the 3'-terminus (N+1 product). This contaminating product is extremely difficult to remove. We recently characterized the single-subunit RNA polymerase f...

RNA polymerase II synthesizes antisense RNA in Plasmodium falciparum.

The recent identification of antisense RNA in the transcriptomes of many eukaryotes has generated enormous interest. The presence of antisense RNA in Plasmodium falciparum, the causative agent of severe malaria, remains controversial. Elucidation of the mechanism of antisense RNA in P. falciparum synthesis is critical in order to demonstrate the origin and function of these transcripts. Therefo...

Enhancement of RNA Interference Effect in P19 EC Cells by an RNA-dependent RNA Polymerase

Background: RNA interference (RNAi) is a phenomenon uses double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) to specifically inhibit gene expression. The non-specific silencing caused by interferon response to dsRNA in mammalian cells limits the potential of utilizing RNAi to study gene function. Duplexes of 21-nucleotide short interfering dsRNA (siRNA) inhibit gene expression by RNAi. In some organisms, siRNA can als...