PNA-Assisted DNAzymes to Cleave Double-Stranded DNA for Genetic Engineering with High Sequence Fidelity

Mingkuan Lyu, Linggen Kong, Zhenglin Yang, Yuting Wu, Claire E. Mcghee, Yi Lu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

DNAzymes have been widely used in many sensing and imaging applications but have rarely been used for genetic engineering since their discovery in 1994, because their substrate scope is mostly limited to single-stranded DNA or RNA, whereas genetic information is stored mostly in double-stranded DNA (dsDNA). To overcome this major limitation, we herein report peptide nucleic acid (PNA)-assisted double-stranded DNA nicking by DNAzymes (PANDA) as the first example to expand DNAzyme activity toward dsDNA. We show that PANDA is programmable in efficiently nicking or causing double strand breaks on target dsDNA, which mimics protein nucleases and can act as restriction enzymes in molecular cloning. In addition to being much smaller than protein enzymes, PANDA has a higher sequence fidelity compared with CRISPR/Cas under the condition we tested, demonstrating its potential as a novel alternative tool for genetic engineering and other biochemical applications.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)9724-9728
Number of pages5
JournalJournal of the American Chemical Society
Volume143
Issue number26
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 7 2021

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Chemistry(all)
  • Biochemistry
  • Catalysis
  • Colloid and Surface Chemistry

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'PNA-Assisted DNAzymes to Cleave Double-Stranded DNA for Genetic Engineering with High Sequence Fidelity'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this