Single-stranded binding proteins and helicase enhance the activity of prokaryotic argonautes in vitro.

ABSTRACT: Prokaryotic argonautes are a unique class of nucleic acid-guided endonucleases putatively involved in cellular defense against foreign genetic elements. While their eukaryotic homologs and Cas protein counterparts require single-stranded RNAs as guides, some prokaryotic argonautes are able to utilize short single-stranded DNAs as guides for sequence-specific endonuclease activity. Many complications currently prevent the use of prokaryotic argonautes for in vivo gene-editing applications; however, they do exhibit potential as a new class of in vitro molecular tools if certain challenges can be overcome, specifically the limitations on substrate accessibility which leads to unequal levels of activity across a broad palate of substrates and the inability to act on double-stranded DNA substra

SUBMITTER: Hunt EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6114923 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature