Abstract
In the hypothetical ancient “RNA world,” DNA's chemical sister RNA played the central genetic and catalytic roles in biological processes. Implicit in such a system is the existence of an RNA polymerase ribozyme. Previous in vitro evolution and step-wise engineering created the R18 RNA polymerase ribozyme, which has limited polymerase activity (up to 14 nucleotides). Wochner et al. (p. [209][1]; see the Perspective by [Yarus][2] ) used the R18 ribozyme as a starting point to engineer and evolve further a new RNA polymerase ribozyme capable of synthesizing templates up to ∼94 nucleotides in length with high fidelity. The improved ribozyme could synthesize a small self-cleaving hammerhead ribozyme. [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1200752 [2]: /lookup/volpage/332/181?iss=6026
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