Researchers Create Artificial DNA Bases
- Tracy Hampton, PhD
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- BASE PAIRING
- DNA
- NUCLEOTIDES
- RNA
The creation of 2 artificial DNA building blocks gives researchers the capability of increasing DNA's information potential and may make it possible to synthesize proteins with novel properties (Leconte AM et al. J Am Chem Soc. 2008;130[7]:2336-2343).
Researchers have created an artificial DNA base pair, a feat that may make it possible to manufacture proteins with novel properties.
Like DNA's natural base-pair constituents, guanine pairing with cytosine and adenine with thymine, the additional DNA nucleotides pair up and could allow researchers to create unique DNA molecules with tailor-made binding or enzymatic activities for use in the laboratory and the clinic, said principal investigator and chemist Floyd Romesberg, PhD, of Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif.
NEW NUCLEOTIDES
Through experiments led by graduate student Aaron Leconte, Romesberg's group generated thousands of artificial nucleotides and searched for candidates that could be accurately copied by the enzymes responsible for DNA replication. From a …
