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Updated: Jun 27, 2026

Kinetics of Lagging-strand DNA Synthesis In Vitro by the Bacteriophage T7 Replication Proteins
Published on: February 25, 2017
Reversible switching of pRNA activity on the DNA packaging motor of bacteriophage phi29
Seung Hyeon Ko1, Yi Chen, Dan Shu
1Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, 560 Oval Drive, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA.
Abstract:
This paper reports a reversible switching of the biological activity of an RNA molecule, packaging RNA (pRNA), which is a central component of the DNA packaging motor of bacteriophage phi29. The switching mechanism contains two components: (1) inhibition of pRNA by a short antisense DNA (asDNA) that can bind to the 3' end of the pRNA and inactivate the packaging motor; and (2) reactivation of pRNA by isothermal removal of asDNA from pRNA through a strand displacement strategy. The switching process can be repeated for multiple cycles and has been demonstrated by gel electrophoresis and a virion assembly assay.
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