Coordinated control of a designed <i>trans</i>‐acting ligase ribozyme by a loop–receptor interaction

Abstract

We previously developed a synthetic cis-acting RNA ligase ribozyme with 3'-5' joining activity termed "DSL" (designed and selected ligase). DSL was easily transformed into a trans-acting form because of its highly modular architecture. In this study, we investigated the modular properties and turnover capabilities of a trans-acting DSL, tDSL-1/GUAA. tDSL-1/GUAA exhibited remarkably high activity compared with the parental cis-acting DSL, and it attained a high turnover number. Taken together, the results indicate that a loop-receptor interaction plays a significant role in determining the activity of the trans-acting ribozyme and in its ability to perform multiple turnovers of the reaction.