In vitro selections with RNAs of variable length converge on a robust catalytic core.

ABSTRACT: In vitro selection is a powerful tool that can be used to understand basic principles of molecular evolution. We used in vitro selection to understand how changes in length and the accumulation of point mutations enable the evolution of functional RNAs. Using RNA populations of various lengths, we performed a series of in vitro experiments to select for ribozymes with RNA ligase activity. We identified a core ribozyme structure that was robust to changes in RNA length, high levels of mutagenesis, and increased selection pressure. Elaboration on this core structure resulted in improved activity which we show is consistent with a larger trend among functional RNAs in which increasing motif size can lead to an exponential improvement in fitness. We conclude that elaboration on conserved core

SUBMITTER: Popovic M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7826250 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature