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Merging the RNA and DNA worlds

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 14, pages 1122–1123 (2007)Cite this article

The demonstrated ability of modern DNA-dependent RNA polymerases to use RNA templates for productive RNA synthesis suggests that they evolved from ancient RNA-dependent RNA replicases.

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Figure 1: RNAP blocks the extension of the persistent RNA duplex.
Figure 2: Putative pathway for the evolution of RNAPs.

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Author notes

  1. Dmitry G. Vassylyev is in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, 402B Kaul Genetics Building, 720 20th Street South, Birmingham, Alabama 35294, USA. dmitry@uab.edu

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Irina Artsimovich is in the Department of Microbiology, The Ohio State University, 484 West 12th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA. artsimovitch.1@osu.edu,

    Irina Artsimovitch & Dmitry G Vassylyev

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  1. Irina Artsimovitch
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  2. Dmitry G Vassylyev
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Artsimovitch, I., Vassylyev, D. Merging the RNA and DNA worlds. Nat Struct Mol Biol 14, 1122–1123 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb1207-1122

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