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Functional nucleic acids in iGEM
Looking at the history of functional RNA in iGEM naturally occurring self-splicing introns were used by Team Waterloo 2011 to rejoin a split GFP posttranscriptionally. Riboswitches the natural relatives of aptamers have been used in several projects for example Cambridge 2012, Goettingen 2013 and also Bettencourt 2015. Hammerhead ribozymes have been discovered by several teams as handy tools (Peking 2011, Fudan 2012 and MIT 2011) and DTU Denmark 2014 worked with the Spinach aptamer. Although functional RNA has been used in some iGEM projects DNA or DNAzymes have rarely been mentioned before. Our project this year aims to modularize and standardize all these and many more parts. With our new BBF RFC 110 we simplify the work with RNA and thus want to encourage future teams to also dive into the world of RNA. By the addition and modularization of many DNA parts we want to stress to possibilities DNA possesses.
HRP-mimicking DNAzyme folds into a G-quadruplex and assembles a hemin inside. IT catalyzes the reduction of H2O2 to H2O and thus lead to turn over of classical HRP substrates.
By providing the community with tools for different applications, we contribute a foundational advance in the work with functional RNA. Not only is the system highly modular and therefore predisposed for standardization and usage in Synthetic Biology, the software developed by our team enables scientists to create aptamers and aptazymes de novo. Thereby we open up the world of functional nucleic acids to the entire Synthetic Biology community. Dive deeper now!