An orthogonal DNA replication system in yeast
February 2nd, 2014 by Arjun Ravikumar
Nature Chemical Biology 10, 175 (2014). doi:10.1038/nchembio.1439
Authors: Arjun Ravikumar, Adrian Arrieta & Chang C Liu
An extranuclear replication system, consisting of an orthogonal DNA plasmid–DNA polymerase pair, was developed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Engineered error-prone DNA polymerases showed complete mutational targeting in vivo: per-base mutation rates on the plasmid were increased substantially and remained stable with no increase in genomic rates. Orthogonal replication serves as a platform for in vivo continuous evolution and as a system whose replicative properties can be manipulated independently of the host's.