Abstract
Natural genes and proteins often contain tandemly repeated sequence motifs that dramatically increase physiological specificity and activity. Given the selective value of such repeats, it is likely that several different mechanisms have been responsible for their generation. One mechanism that has been shown to generate relatively long tandem repeats (in the kilobase range) is rolling circle replication. In this communication, we demonstrate that rolling circle synthesis in a simple enzymatic system can produce tandem repeats of monomers as short as 34 bp. In addition to suggesting possible origins for natural tandem repeats, these observations provide a facile means for constructing libraries of repeated motifs for use in "in vitro evolution" experiments designed to select molecules with defined biological or chemical properties.
Full text
PDF




Images in this article
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Barbas C. F., 3rd, Amberg W., Simoncsits A., Jones T. M., Lerner R. A. Selection of human anti-hapten antibodies from semisynthetic libraries. Gene. 1993 Dec 27;137(1):57–62. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(93)90251-w. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Britten R. J., Kohne D. E. Repeated sequences in DNA. Hundreds of thousands of copies of DNA sequences have been incorporated into the genomes of higher organisms. Science. 1968 Aug 9;161(3841):529–540. doi: 10.1126/science.161.3841.529. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Cavalier-Smith T. Palindromic base sequences and replication of eukaryote chromosome ends. Nature. 1974 Aug 9;250(5466):467–470. doi: 10.1038/250467a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Corden J. L. Tails of RNA polymerase II. Trends Biochem Sci. 1990 Oct;15(10):383–387. doi: 10.1016/0968-0004(90)90236-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Diener T. O. Subviral pathogens of plants: viroids and viroidlike satellite RNAs. FASEB J. 1991 Oct;5(13):2808–2813. doi: 10.1096/fasebj.5.13.1717335. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Engel J. Laminins and other strange proteins. Biochemistry. 1992 Nov 10;31(44):10643–10651. doi: 10.1021/bi00159a001. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Gilbert W., Dressler D. DNA replication: the rolling circle model. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 1968;33:473–484. doi: 10.1101/sqb.1968.033.01.055. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Goodwin E. B., Okkema P. G., Evans T. C., Kimble J. Translational regulation of tra-2 by its 3' untranslated region controls sexual identity in C. elegans. Cell. 1993 Oct 22;75(2):329–339. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(93)80074-o. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Koo H. S., Drak J., Rice J. A., Crothers D. M. Determination of the extent of DNA bending by an adenine-thymine tract. Biochemistry. 1990 May 1;29(17):4227–4234. doi: 10.1021/bi00469a027. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Ollis D. L., Brick P., Hamlin R., Xuong N. G., Steitz T. A. Structure of large fragment of Escherichia coli DNA polymerase I complexed with dTMP. 1985 Feb 28-Mar 6Nature. 313(6005):762–766. doi: 10.1038/313762a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Ondek B., Shepard A., Herr W. Discrete elements within the SV40 enhancer region display different cell-specific enhancer activities. EMBO J. 1987 Apr;6(4):1017–1025. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1987.tb04854.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Vergnaud G., Mariat D., Apiou F., Aurias A., Lathrop M., Lauthier V. The use of synthetic tandem repeats to isolate new VNTR loci: cloning of a human hypermutable sequence. Genomics. 1991 Sep;11(1):135–144. doi: 10.1016/0888-7543(91)90110-z. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Wharton R. P., Struhl G. RNA regulatory elements mediate control of Drosophila body pattern by the posterior morphogen nanos. Cell. 1991 Nov 29;67(5):955–967. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(91)90368-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]