© 2003 Elsevier Science
In this two-pot recombination scheme a ribozyme is incubated with an excess of RNA substrate A-B. The 3' portion of the substrate is covalently attached to the 3' end of the ribozyme in a "pick-up-the-tail" (PUTT) reaction. When the ribozyme is purified and incubated with an excess of substrate C-D, recombination (REC) of the substrates results in the product C-B. Exogenous GTP marginally improves recombination frequency which ranges from 5% to 45%. (From Chem Biol, 10:1233–43, 2003)
Some researchers delving into the origins of life have sex on the brain. The prevailing thought in the field says that sex, typically defined as reproduction involving the fusion of genomes, emerged no more than 1.2 billion years ago. This is when eukaryotes, often haughtily considered the only organisms privileged enough to partake, evolved. But some are broadening the definition of the natural act and implicating it in life's ...
