Nucleic acids articles within Nature

Featured

• Article | 21 June 2023

  Intricate 3D architecture of a DNA mimic of GFP

  X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy analyses of Lettuce—a DNA mimic of GFP—bound to various fluorophores reveal previously unknown structures of DNA that rival analogous RNAs in complexity.

  • Luiz F. M. Passalacqua
  • , Michael T. Banco
  •  & Adrian R. Ferré-D’Amaré

• Article | 28 October 2020

  Site-specific RNA methylation by a methyltransferase ribozyme

  A methyltransferase ribozyme, along with the small-molecule cofactor O⁶-methylguanine, is shown to catalyse the site-specific installation of 1-methyladenosine in various RNAs, providing insights into the catalytic abilities of RNA.

  • Carolin P. M. Scheitl
  • , Mohammad Ghaem Maghami
  •  & Claudia Höbartner

• Letter | 30 November 2017

  A semi-synthetic organism that stores and retrieves increased genetic information

  A modified Escherichia coli is used to demonstrate that semi-synthetic organisms can use non-natural hydrophobic base pairs to genetically encode for the incorporation of non-canonical amino acids into proteins.

  • Yorke Zhang
  • , Jerod L. Ptacin
  •  & Floyd E. Romesberg

• Letter | 06 January 2016

  Crystal structure of a DNA catalyst

  Both DNA and RNA molecules have been shown to exhibit catalytic activity, but only the structure of catalytic RNAs has previously been determined; here the structure of an RNA-ligating DNA in the post-catalytic state is solved.

  • Almudena Ponce-Salvatierra
  • , Katarzyna Wawrzyniak-Turek
  •  & Vladimir Pena

• Letter | 01 December 2014

  Catalysts from synthetic genetic polymers

  Four different XNAs — polymers with backbone chemistries not found in nature, namely, arabino nucleic acids, 2′-fluoroarabino nucleic acids, hexitol nucleic acids and cyclohexene nucleic acids — are found to be able to support the evolution of synthetic enzymes (XNAzymes) that catalyse several chemical reactions.

  • Alexander I. Taylor
  • , Vitor B. Pinheiro
  •  & Philipp Holliger

• Letter | 29 October 2014

  A cross-chiral RNA polymerase ribozyme

  Here, a cross-chiral RNA polymerase is developed—an RNA enzyme that can catalyse the templated polymerization of activated mononucleotides that are of the opposite handedness—shedding light on how RNA-based life could have emerged.

  • Jonathan T. Sczepanski
  •  & Gerald F. Joyce

• Letter | 27 November 2013

  N⁶-methyladenosine-dependent regulation of messenger RNA stability

  The mRNAs of higher eukaryotes are extensively modified internally with N⁶-methyladenosine, but the specific functional role of this modification has been unclear; here this modification on mRNA is shown to be recognized by several proteins, the modification and its recognition serve to regulate the RNA’s lifetime.

  • Xiao Wang
  • , Zhike Lu
  •  & Chuan He

• Research Highlights | 03 March 2010

  Nanotechnology: Light DNA machine