Enzymatic Behavior by Intercalating Molecules in a Template-Directed Ligation Reaction

✍ Scribed by Swapan S. Jain; Frank A. L. Anet; Christopher J. Stahle; Nicholas V. Hud

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 144 KB
• Volume: 116
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0044-8249
• DOI: 10.1002/ange.200353155

✦ Synopsis

Since the discovery of catalytic RNA two decades ago, [1] much attention has focused on the hypothesis that an early form of life used nucleic acids for both information storage and catalysis before the advent of proteins. [2] However, it is still a mystery how the first nucleic acid polymers assembled and replicated, as these tasks are carried out by protein enzymes in contemporary life. Decades of research have led to the inescapable conclusion that Watson-Crick base pairing alone does not sufficiently stabilize the assembly of mononucleo-

[*] S.