Enzyme engineering through evolution: Thermostable recombinant group II intron reverse transcriptases provide new tools for RNA research and biotechnology
- 1Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- 2Center for RNA Molecular Biology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA
Abstract
Current investigation of RNA transcriptomes relies heavily on the use of retroviral reverse transcriptases. It is well known that these enzymes have many limitations because of their intrinsic properties. This commentary highlights the recent biochemical characterization of a new family of reverse transcriptases, those encoded by group II intron retrohoming elements. The novel properties of these enzymes endow them with the potential to revolutionize how we approach RNA analyses.
Keywords
Footnotes
-
↵3 Corresponding authors
E-mail twn{at}case.edu
E-mail kcollins{at}berkeley.edu
- © 2013; Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press for the RNA Society
This article is distributed exclusively by the RNA Society for the first 12 months after the full-issue publication date (see http://rnajournal.cshlp.org/site/misc/terms.xhtml). After 12 months, it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported), as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.
