Premium
In Vitro Selection of Specific Ligand‐binding Nucleic Acids
Author(s) -
Famulok Michael,
Szostak Jack W.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition in english
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 0570-0833
DOI - 10.1002/anie.199209791
Subject(s) - ribozyme , nucleic acid , rna , dna , ligase ribozyme , nucleic acid structure , chemistry , biochemistry , in vitro , small molecule , deoxyribozyme , function (biology) , computational biology , combinatorial chemistry , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , gene
In vitro selection is a method that allows the simultaneous screening of very large numbers of nucleic acid molecules for a wide range of properties from binding characteristics to catalytic properties; moreover, the isolation of the very rare functional molecules becomes possible. Binding sites between proteins and nucleic acids, for example, have been evaluated by this methodology in order to gain information about protein/nucleic acid interactions. Structure and function of catalytic RNA (“ribozymes”) has been studied by in vitro selection and has led to new ribozymes with improved catalytic function. Substrate specificity of catalytic RNA has been changed and has led to a ribozyme that cleaves DNA. Other applications include the isolation of nucleic acids that bind specifically to small organic molecules and of RNA molecules that form triple helices with double‐stranded DNA. In this article we discuss the background, design, and results of in vitro genetic experiments, which bridge biochemical/molecular biological and organic chemical approaches to molecular recognition.