Nucleic acid engineering

Abstract This chapter updates but mostly supplements the author s Ange-wandte Review,111 setting in context recent advances based on protein and nucleic acid engineering. Systems qualify as a true enzyme mimics if there is experimental evidence for both the initial binding interaction and catalysis with turnover, generally in the shape of saturation kinetics. They are discussed under five broad headings mimics based on natural enzymes, on other proteins, on other biopolymers, on synthetic macromolecules and on small-molecule host-guest interactions. 

The major classes of organic compounds common to living systems are lipids pro terns nucleic acids and carbohydrates Carbohydrates are very familiar to us— we call many of them sugars They make up a substantial portion of the food we eat and provide most of the energy that keeps the human engine running Carbohy drates are structural components of the walls of plant cells and the wood of trees Genetic information is stored and transferred by way of nucleic acids specialized derivatives of carbohydrates which we 11 examine m more detail m Chapter 28... 

Nucleic acids are the molecules of the genetic apparatus. They direct protein biosynthesis in the body and are the raw materials of genetic technology (see Genetic engineering). Most often polynucleotides are synthesized microbiologicaHy, or at least enzymatically, but chemical synthesis is possible. 

Oligonucleic acid or peptide molecules that bind a specific target molecule. Nucleic acid aptamer species can be engineered through treated rounds of in vitro selection to bind to various molecular targets such as... 

As mentioned in Section 9.2.3.3, paramagnetic centers can also be engineered into proteins and nucleic acids by chemical or biochemical means. The method therefore is in principle applicable to a wide range of problems. 

Lutz, S., Ostermeier, M. and Benkovic, S.J. (2001) Rapid generation of incremental truncation librariesforprotein engineering using alpha-phosphothioate nucleotides. Nucleic Acids Research, 29, E16. 

Finally, as we show in the last section of the chapter, the method is generally applicable to quantitating nucleic acids rather than just mRNAs. For example, establishment of gene copy number in engineered cell... 

The ability to synthesize chemically short sequences of single-stranded DNA (oligonucleotides) is an essential part of many aspects of genetic engineering. The method most frequently employed is that of solid-phase synthesis, where the basic philosophy is the same as that in solid-phase peptide synthesis (see Section 13.6.3). In other words, the growing nucleic acid is attached to a suitable solid support, protected nucleotides are supplied in the appropriate sequence, and each addition is followed by repeated coupling and deprotection cycles. 

Enhancing the overall resistivity of the body is observed upon treatment with a number of known drugs immunostimulants (caffeine, phenamine, methyluracil), vitamins (retinol, ascorbic acid, vitamins of group B), nucleic acid derivatives, and also drugs of natural or genetically engineered origin made specifically for this purpose. 

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