Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 25 April 1997:
Vol. 276. no. 5312, pp. 614 - 617
DOI: 10.1126/science.276.5312.614
Prev | Table of Contents

Reports

Continuous in Vitro Evolution of Catalytic Function

Martin C. Wright, Gerald F. Joyce *

A population of RNA molecules that catalyze the template-directed ligation of RNA substrates was made to evolve in a continuous manner in the test tube. A simple serial transfer procedure was used to achieve approximately 300 successive rounds of catalysis and selective amplification in 52 hours. During this time, the population size was maintained against an overall dilution of 3 × 10298. Both the catalytic rate and amplification rate of the RNAs improved substantially as a consequence of mutations that accumulated during the evolution process. Continuous in vitro evolution makes it possible to maintain laboratory "cultures" of catalytic molecules that can be perpetuated indefinitely.

Departments of Chemistry and Molecular Biology and The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
A class I ligase ribozyme with reduced Mg2+ dependence: Selection, sequence analysis, and identification of functional tertiary interactions.
S. C. Bagby, N. H. Bergman, D. M. Shechner, C. Yen, and D. P. Bartel (2009)
RNA 15, 2129-2146
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Crystal Structure of the Catalytic Core of an RNA-Polymerase Ribozyme.
D. M. Shechner, R. A. Grant, S. C. Bagby, Y. Koldobskaya, J. A. Piccirilli, and D. P. Bartel (2009)
Science 326, 1271-1275
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Evolution in an RNA World.
G.F. Joyce (2009)
Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol
   Abstract »    PDF »
Niche partitioning in the coevolution of 2 distinct RNA enzymes.
S. B. Voytek and G. F. Joyce (2009)
PNAS 106, 7780-7785
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Models of primitive cellular life: polymerases and templates in liposomes.
P.-A. Monnard, A. Luptak, and D. W Deamer (2007)
Phil Trans R Soc B 362, 1741-1750
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Emergence of a fast-reacting ribozyme that is capable of undergoing continuous evolution.
S. B. Voytek and G. F. Joyce (2007)
PNAS 104, 15288-15293
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Stochastic innovation as a mechanism by which catalysts might self-assemble into chemical reaction networks.
J. A. Bradford and K. A. Dill (2007)
PNAS 104, 10098-10103
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Accumulation of Deleterious Mutations in Small Abiotic Populations of RNA.
S. J. Soll, C. D. Arenas, and N. Lehman (2007)
Genetics 175, 267-275
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Correlation between evolutionary structural development and protein folding.
C. Nagao, T. P. Terada, T. Yomo, and M. Sasai (2005)
PNAS 102, 18950-18955
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
RNA-directed construction of structurally complex and active ligase ribozymes through recombination.
E. J. HAYDEN, C. A. RILEY, A. S. BURTON, and N. LEHMAN (2005)
RNA 11, 1678-1687
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Direct selection of trans-acting ligase ribozymes by in vitro compartmentalization.
M. LEVY, K. E. GRISWOLD, and A. D. ELLINGTON (2005)
RNA 11, 1555-1562
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Zeptomole detection of a viral nucleic acid using a target-activated ribozyme.
N. K. VAISH, V. R. JADHAV, K. KOSSEN, C. PASKO, L. E. ANDREWS, J. A. MCSWIGGEN, B. POLISKY, and S. D. SEIWERT (2003)
RNA 9, 1058-1072
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A modular, bifunctional RNA that integrates itself into a target RNA.
R. M. Kumar and G. F. Joyce (2003)
PNAS 100, 9738-9743
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Construction of block-shuffled libraries of DNA for evolutionary protein engineering: Y-ligation-based block shuffling.
K. Kitamura, Y. Kinoshita, S. Narasaki, N. Nemoto, Y. Husimi, and K. Nishigaki (2002)
Protein Eng. Des. Sel. 15, 843-853
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Importance of compartment formation for a self-encoding system.
T. Matsuura, M. Yamaguchi, E. P. Ko-Mitamura, Y. Shima, I. Urabe, and T. Yomo (2002)
PNAS 99, 7514-7517
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Compositional genomes: Prebiotic information transfer in mutually catalytic noncovalent assemblies.
D. Segre, D. Ben-Eli, and D. Lancet (2000)
PNAS 97, 4112-4117
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Neutral evolution of mutational robustness.
E. van Nimwegen, J. P. Crutchfield, and M. Huynen (1999)
PNAS 96, 9716-9720
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Directed evolution of an aspartate aminotransferase with new substrate specificities.
T. Yano, S. Oue, and H. Kagamiyama (1998)
PNAS 95, 5511-5515
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
In vitro selection of a purine nucleotide-specific hammerheadlike ribozyme.
N. K. Vaish, P. A. Heaton, O. Fedorova, and F. Eckstein (1998)
PNAS 95, 2158-2162
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Substitution of Ribonucleotides in the T7 RNA Polymerase Promoter Element.
K. E. McGinness and G. F. Joyce (2002)
J. Biol. Chem. 277, 2987-2991
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)