PubMed · 12013749
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Nicola Louise Jones. 2002. PCR. Principles, procedures, and parameters.. https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-273-2%3A037
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Insertion of completely complementary microRNA (miR) target sites (miRTS) into a transgene has been shown to be a valuable approach to specifically repress transgene expression in non-targeted tissues. miR-122TS have been successfully used to silence transgene expression in the liver following systemic application of cardiotropic adeno-associated virus (AAV) 9 vectors. For miR-206-mediated skeletal muscle-specific silencing of miR-206TS-bearing AAV9 vectors, however, we found this approach failed due to the expression of another member (miR-1) of the same miR family in heart tissue, the intended target. We introduced single-nucleotide substitutions into the miR-206TS and searched for those which prevented miR-1-mediated cardiac repression. Several mutated miR-206TS (m206TS), in particular m206TS-3G, were resistant to miR-1, but remained fully sensitive to miR-206. All these variants had mismatches in the seed region of the miR/m206TS duplex in common. Furthermore, we found that some m206TS, containing mismatches within the seed region or within the 3' portion of the miR-206, even enhanced the miR-206- mediated transgene repression. In vivo expression of m206TS-3G- and miR-122TS-containing transgene of systemically applied AAV9 vectors was strongly repressed in both skeletal muscle and the liver but remained high in the heart. Thus, site-directed mutagenesis of miRTS provides a new strategy to differentiate transgene de-targeting of related miRs.
The high fidelity of DNA replication is largely dependent upon accurate incorporation of dNTPs by DNA polymerases. To study the mechanism underlying nucleotide selection, we synthesized four nucleotide analogues bearing the unnatural bases benzimidazole, 5-nitrobenzimidazole, 6-nitrobenzimidazole, and 5-nitroindole and analyzed their incorporation by three DNA polymerases. We have found that human DNA polymerase alpha (pol alpha) and the Klenow fragment of Escherichia coli DNA polymerase I (KF) incorporate all four nucleotide analogues opposite all four canonical bases up to 4000-fold more efficiently than an incorrect natural dNTP (i.e., rates that approach those of a correct, natural dNTP), even though the shape of any base pair formed between the analogue and the template likely does not resemble a normal base pair. While pol alpha preferentially incorporated the analogues opposite template pyrimidines, KF surprisingly preferred to polymerize them opposite template purines. Although neither pol alpha nor KF readily polymerized a natural dNTP opposite either 5- or 6-nitrobenzimidazole in the template strand, the enzymes did incorporate the analogues to generate novel base pairs. Both pol alpha and KF polymerized the analogues up to 140-fold more efficiently than dATP both across from abasic sites and as 3'-overhangs on blunt-ended templates. Although Maloney murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase did not measurably incorporate the analogues, this enzyme bound the analogues with K(I)'s only slightly higher than the K(m) for polymerization of the normal dNTP. The implications of these results with respect to how polymerases discriminate between correct and incorrect dNTPs are discussed.
We present a comprehensive software package, 3DNA, for the analysis, reconstruction and visualization of three-dimensional nucleic acid structures. Starting from a coordinate file in Protein Data Bank (PDB) format, 3DNA can handle antiparallel and parallel double helices, single-stranded structures, triplexes, quadruplexes and other complex tertiary folding motifs found in both DNA and RNA structures. The analysis routines identify and categorize all base interactions and classify the double helical character of appropriate base pair steps. The program makes use of a recently recommended reference frame for the description of nucleic acid base pair geometry and a rigorous matrix-based scheme to calculate local conformational parameters and rebuild the structure from these parameters. The rebuilding routines produce rectangular block representations of nucleic acids as well as full atomic models with the sugar-phosphate backbone and publication quality 'standardized' base stacking diagrams. Utilities are provided to locate the base pairs and helical regions in a structure and to reorient structures for effective visualization. Regular helical models based on X-ray diffraction measurements of various repeating sequences can also be generated within the program.