Recent progress in non-native nucleic acid modifications

While Nature harnesses RNA and DNA to store, read and write genetic information, the inherent programmability, synthetic accessibility and wide functionality of these nucleic acids make them attractive tools for use in a vast array of applications.

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Nucleic Acids Chemistry and Engineering: Special Issue on Nucleic Acid Conjugates for Biotechnological Applications

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app11083594 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (8) ◽

pp. 3594

Author(s):

Tamaki Endoh ◽

Eriks Rozners ◽

Takashi Ohtsuki

Keyword(s):

Nucleic Acid ◽

Nucleic Acids ◽

Genetic Information ◽

Biotechnological Applications ◽

Biological Functions ◽

Primary Sequence ◽

Special Issue

Nucleic acids not only store genetic information in their primary sequence but also exhibit biological functions through the formation of their unique structures [...]

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Bat Red Blood Cells express Nucleic Acid Sensing Receptors and bind RNA and DNA

10.1101/2022.01.13.476238 ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

LK Metthew Lam ◽

Jane Dobkin ◽

Kaitlyn A. Eckart ◽

Ian Gereg ◽

Andrew DiSalvo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Nucleic Acid ◽

Nucleic Acids ◽

Red Blood Cells ◽

Immune Function ◽

Blood Cells ◽

Toll Like Receptors ◽

Cpg Dna ◽

Human Rbcs ◽

Insight Into ◽

Rna And Dna

Red blood cells (RBCs) demonstrate immunomodulatory capabilities through the expression of nucleic acid sensors. Little is known about bat RBCs, and no studies have examined the immune function of bat erythrocytes. Here we show that bat RBCs express the nucleic acid-sensing Toll-like receptors TLR7 and TLR9 and bind the nucleic acid ligands, single-stranded RNA, and CpG DNA. Collectively, these data suggest that, like human RBCs, bat erythrocytes possess immune function and may be reservoirs for nucleic acids. These findings provide unique insight into bat immunity and may uncover potential mechanisms by which virulent pathogens in humans are concealed in bats.

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Intrastrand backbone-nucleobase interactions stabilize unwound right-handed helical structures of heteroduplexes of L-aTNA/RNA and SNA/RNA

Communications Chemistry ◽

10.1038/s42004-020-00400-2 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Yukiko Kamiya ◽

Tadashi Satoh ◽

Atsuji Kodama ◽

Tatsuya Suzuki ◽

Keiji Murayama ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Nucleic Acid ◽

Nucleic Acids ◽

Crystal Structures ◽

Prebiotic Chemistry ◽

Basic Research ◽

Structural Features ◽

Helical Structures ◽

Base Pairs ◽

Triplex Structure ◽

Rna And Dna

Abstract Xeno nucleic acids, which are synthetic analogues of natural nucleic acids, have potential for use in nucleic acid drugs and as orthogonal genetic biopolymers and prebiotic precursors. Although few acyclic nucleic acids can stably bind to RNA and DNA, serinol nucleic acid (SNA) and L-threoninol nucleic acid (L-aTNA) stably bind to them. Here we disclose crystal structures of RNA hybridizing with SNA and with L-aTNA. The heteroduplexes show unwound right-handed helical structures. Unlike canonical A-type duplexes, the base pairs in the heteroduplexes align perpendicularly to the helical axes, and consequently helical pitches are large. The unwound helical structures originate from interactions between nucleobases and neighbouring backbones of L-aTNA and SNA through CH–O bonds. In addition, SNA and L-aTNA form a triplex structure via C:G*G parallel Hoogsteen interactions with RNA. The unique structural features of the RNA-recognizing mode of L-aTNA and SNA should prove useful in nanotechnology, biotechnology, and basic research into prebiotic chemistry.

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The degradation of nucleic acids in, and the removal of breakdown products from the small intestines of steers

British Journal Of Nutrition ◽

10.1079/bjn19800014 ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 44 (1) ◽

pp. 99-112 ◽

Cited By ~ 49

Author(s):

A. B. McAllan

Keyword(s):

Uric Acid ◽

Small Intestine ◽

Polyethylene Glycol ◽

Nucleic Acid ◽

Nucleic Acids ◽

Terminal Ileum ◽

Pyrimidine Nucleosides ◽

Small Intestines ◽

Rna And Dna ◽

Serum And Urine

1. Nucleic acids and breakdown products were estimated in digesta taken from different sites in the small intestines of slaughtered steers given different diets. Amounts passing different sites were compared using cellulose as a non-digestible marker. The validity of this marker was checked with chromic oxide in some experiments. In other experiments, nucleic acids or derivatives were infused into the proximal duodenum of steers receiving diets of approximately equal proportions of flaked maize and hay. The amounts disappearing during passage through the small intestine were estimated using polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a non- absorbable marker.2. In the slaughter experiments the amounts of nucleic acids entering the small intestine varied with the type of diet. RNA and DNA disappeared on average, to extents of 89% and 80% respectively between the abomasum and the terminal ileum, irrespective of the diet. RNA disappearance occurred almost entirely in the proximal quarter of the small intestine, whereas that of DNA extended further along the tract.3. Nucleic acid degradation in the upper small intestine was accompanied by the transient appearance of adenosine, guanosine and pyrimidine nucleosides. These products were in greatest concentration in digesta from the first quarter of the small intestine and had generally completely disappeared by the terminal ileum.4. Of the different substances infused into the small intestine, free nucleic acids were removed to extents greater than 97%, adenine, guanine and uracil had completely disappeared, thymine and xanthine to approximately 80% and 95% and hypoxanthine and cytosine to only 51% and 48% respectively. The nucleosides adenosine and cytidine were also completely removed in the small intestine but were replaced, in part, by the catabolic products inosine plus hypoxanthine or cytosine respectively. Other nucleosides were removed to approximately half the extent of the corresponding bases.5. Serum and urine allantoin and uric acid levels were related to the amounts of purines entering the small intestines in free or bound form.

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Nucleic acid metabolism in the ruminant

British Journal Of Nutrition ◽

10.1079/bjn19690075 ◽

1969 ◽

Vol 23 (3) ◽

pp. 671-682 ◽

Cited By ~ 65

Author(s):

A. B. Mcallan ◽

R. H. Smith

Keyword(s):

Nucleic Acid ◽

Nucleic Acids ◽

Acid Solution ◽

Perchloric Acid ◽

Trichloroacetic Acid ◽

Acid Metabolism ◽

Nucleic Acid Metabolism ◽

Trichloroacetic Acid Solution ◽

Rna And Dna

1. Procedures, based on those of Schmidt & Thannhauser (1945) and Schneider (1945), for the extraction and estimation of nucleic acids in bovine digesta were examined in detail.2. Final methods which were suitable for routine determination of RNA and DNA were essentially as follows. Digesta samples were extracted in the cold, first with a solution of trichloroacetic acid in ethanol, then with aqueous trichloroacetic acid solution and finally with lipid solvents. The dried residue was hydrolysed with alkali, purified by passage through a Dowex resin, and the RNA, in the form of mononucleotides, determined by U.V. absorption. DNA was determined separately in hot perchloric acid extracts of the original dried residue by colorimetric estimation of the deoxyribose content.

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Application of Nucleic Acid Frameworks in the Construction of Nanostructures and Cascade Biocatalysts: Recent Progress and Perspective

Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology ◽

10.3389/fbioe.2021.792489 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Gan Zhu ◽

Ping Song ◽

Jing Wu ◽

Minglan Luo ◽

Zhipeng Chen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Nucleic Acid ◽

Nucleic Acids ◽

Recent Progress ◽

Cascade Reactions ◽

Molecular Structures ◽

Potential Contribution ◽

Enzyme Systems ◽

Structures And Properties ◽

Living Organisms ◽

Future Direction

Nucleic acids underlie the storage and retrieval of genetic information literally in all living organisms, and also provide us excellent materials for making artificial nanostructures and scaffolds for constructing multi-enzyme systems with outstanding performance in catalyzing various cascade reactions, due to their highly diverse and yet controllable structures, which are well determined by their sequences. The introduction of unnatural moieties into nucleic acids dramatically increased the diversity of sequences, structures, and properties of the nucleic acids, which undoubtedly expanded the toolbox for making nanomaterials and scaffolds of multi-enzyme systems. In this article, we first introduce the molecular structures and properties of nucleic acids and their unnatural derivatives. Then we summarized representative artificial nanomaterials made of nucleic acids, as well as their properties, functions, and application. We next review recent progress on constructing multi-enzyme systems with nucleic acid structures as scaffolds for cascade biocatalyst. Finally, we discuss the future direction of applying nucleic acid frameworks in the construction of nanomaterials and multi-enzyme molecular machines, with the potential contribution that unnatural nucleic acids may make to this field highlighted.

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Changes in nucleic acid and protein levels during in vitro germ¬nation and elongation of Lilium longifforum cv. "Ace" polleni

Acta Societatis Botanicorum Poloniae ◽

10.5586/asbp.1981.006 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 50 (1-2) ◽

pp. 39-50

Author(s):

William V. Dashek

Keyword(s):

Nucleic Acid ◽

Nucleic Acids ◽

Total Protein ◽

Time Course ◽

Lilium Longiflorum ◽

Protein Levels ◽

Dna And Rna ◽

Rna And Dna ◽

Rna Levels

While changes in nucleic acid and protein levels during germination and subsequent tube elongation have been determined for a number of pollens, they have not been extensively examined for in vitro grown Lilium longiflorum, cv. `Ace' pollen. Nucleic acids and proteins were extracted with cold trichloroacetic acrid (TCA), cold-hot TCA or cold TCA and potassium hydroxide-perchloric acid (KOH-HClO4). Following extraction, RNA, DNA and total protein were assayed colorimetrically with orcinol, diphenylamine and Folin-Phenol reagents, respectively. Extraction of 500 x g supernatants with KOH-HClO4, yielded less RNA than either of the TCA-extraction procedures which gave similar nucleic acids and protein recoveries. Whereas total protein levels decreased initially and then increased during 36 h, RNA and DNA levels rose throughout the time-course. Precipitation and quaritiation of nucleic acids and protein from homogenized and soaicated 500 x g pellets resulted in time-dependent alterations in levels of macromolecules which differed from those for 500 x g supernatants. Whereas DNA and RNA levels increased and then decreased over 36 h, total protein levels remained constant for 12 h and then declined during the : next 24 h. Addition of the data obtained for 500 x g supernatants to those for 500 x g pellets revealed that total protein levels increased 2.4 times for the first 12 h and thereafter remained constant, that RNA levels increased 9.8 times for the first 12 h and then levelled off and that the DNA content rose more than 5 times over 36 h.

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Editorial for the Special Issue on “Nucleic Acid Architectures for Therapeutics, Diagnostics, Devices and Materials”

Nanomaterials ◽

10.3390/nano9070951 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (7) ◽

pp. 951 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Justin R. Halman ◽

Kirill A. Afonin

Keyword(s):

Nucleic Acid ◽

Nucleic Acids ◽

Special Issue ◽

Rna And Dna ◽

Multifunctional Platform

The use of nucleic acids (RNA and DNA) offers a unique and multifunctional platform for numerous applications including therapeutics, diagnostics, nanodevices, and materials [...]

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Picloram Sensitivity and Nucleic Acids in Plants

Weed Science ◽

10.1017/s0043174500077201 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 1-4 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

S. S. Malhotra ◽

J. B. Hanson

Keyword(s):

Nucleic Acid ◽

Nucleic Acids ◽

Herbicide Resistance ◽

Dna Content ◽

Acid Metabolism ◽

Nucleic Acid Metabolism ◽

Sensitive Species ◽

Total Rna ◽

Resistant Species ◽

Rna And Dna

The changes in the nucleic acid metabolism were studied in plants susceptible and resistant to 4-amino-3,5,6-trichloropicolinic acid (picloram). The total RNA and DNA content of the tissue correlated inversely with the herbicide resistance; the resistant plants were low in nucleic acids, whereas sensitive plants were high. The increase in the nucleic acids of the sensitive species 24 hr after picloram treatment appeared to be associated with lower levels of ribonuclease and deoxyribonuclease. The inability of the resistant species to make more RNA may be associated with high levels of nucleases in the tissue.

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Cytological Evidence that Both RNA and DNA May Form a Complex with the Same Protein

The Journal of Cell Biology ◽

10.1083/jcb.5.2.231 ◽

1959 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 231-234 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Virginia C. Littau

Keyword(s):

Nucleic Acid ◽

Nucleic Acids ◽

Deoxyribonucleic Acid ◽

Ovarian Follicle ◽

Follicle Cells ◽

Feulgen Reaction ◽

Cytological Evidence ◽

Trichloracetic Acid ◽

Nucleoprotein Complex ◽

Rna And Dna

Deoxyribonucleic acid can be added back to protein sites from which the original nucleic acid, ribo- or deoxyribo-, is removed. If sections of frozen-substituted ovarian follicle cells of a leafhopper are first extracted by hot trichloracetic acid to remove nucleic acids and then immersed in a solution of a commerical preparation of deoxyribonucleic acid, the nucleic acid becomes attached to nuclear and cytoplasmic sites and can be rendered visible by the Feulgen reaction. The addition occurs in certain other tissues as well. The results are discussed in relation to biochemical and other cytochemical investigations of the nucleoprotein complex.

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