The use of thymidine analogs to improve the replication of an extra DNA base pair: a synthetic biological system

Nucleic Acids Res. 2005 Sep 28;33(17):5640-6. doi: 10.1093/nar/gki873. Print 2005.

Abstract

Synthetic biology based on a six-letter genetic alphabet that includes the two non-standard nucleobases isoguanine (isoG) and isocytosine (isoC), as well as the standard A, T, G and C, is known to suffer as a consequence of a minor tautomeric form of isoguanine that pairs with thymine, and therefore leads to infidelity during repeated cycles of the PCR. Reported here is a solution to this problem. The solution replaces thymidine triphosphate by 2-thiothymidine triphosphate (2-thioTTP). Because of the bulk and hydrogen bonding properties of the thione unit in 2-thioT, 2-thioT does not mispair effectively with the minor tautomer of isoG. To test whether this might allow PCR amplification of a six-letter artificially expanded genetic information system, we examined the relative rates of misincorporation of 2-thioTTP and TTP opposite isoG using affinity electrophoresis. The concentrations of isoCTP and 2-thioTTP were optimal to best support PCR amplification using thermostable polymerases of a six-letter alphabet that includes the isoC-isoG pair. The fidelity-per-round of amplification was found to be approximately 98% in trial PCRs with this six-letter DNA alphabet. The analogous PCR employing TTP had a fidelity-per-round of only approximately 93%. Thus, the A, 2-thioT, G, C, isoC, isoG alphabet is an artificial genetic system capable of Darwinian evolution.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Base Pairing
  • Cytosine / analogs & derivatives
  • Cytosine / chemistry
  • DNA Polymerase I / metabolism
  • DNA Primers
  • DNA Replication
  • Guanine / chemistry
  • Oligonucleotides / biosynthesis*
  • Oligonucleotides / chemistry
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction / methods*
  • Thymidine / analogs & derivatives
  • Thymidine / chemistry
  • Thymine Nucleotides / chemistry*

Substances

  • 2-thiothymidine triphosphate
  • DNA Primers
  • Oligonucleotides
  • Thymine Nucleotides
  • isocytosine
  • 2-thiothymidine
  • Guanine
  • Cytosine
  • isoguanine
  • DNA Polymerase I
  • thymidine 5'-triphosphate
  • Thymidine