TNA synthesis by DNA polymerases

Abstract

Threose nucleic acid (TNA), which has a repeat unit one atom shorter than that of DNA, is capable of Watson-Crick base pairing with DNA, RNA, and TNA. Because of its chemical simplicity, TNA is considered to be a possible progenitor of RNA. As an initial step toward developing the molecular tools necessary to investigate the functional capabilities of TNA by in vitro selection, we have screened a variety of DNA polymerases for TNA synthesis activity on a DNA template. We wish to report that several polymerases show surprisingly good ability to synthesize TNA using alpha-l-threofuranosyl thymidine-3'-triphosphate as a substrate.