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Updated: Feb 6, 2026

DNA-Tethered RNA Polymerase for Programmable In vitro Transcription and Molecular Computation
Published on: December 29, 2021
Large-Scale in Vitro Transcription, RNA Purification and Chemical Probing Analysis
Fariha Kanwal1, Ting Chen1, Yunlong Zhang
1College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, DongHua University, Shanghai, China.
Background/Aims:
RNA elements such as catalytic RNA, riboswitch, microRNA, and long non coding RNA (lncRNA) play central roles in many cellular processes. Studying diverse RNA functions require large quantities of RNA for precise structure analysis. Current RNA structure and function studies can benefit from improved RNA quantity and quality, simpler separation procedure and enhanced accuracy of structural analysis.
Methods:
Here we present an optimized protocol for analyzing the structure of any RNA, including in vitro transcription, size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) based denaturing purification and improved secondary structure analysis by chemical probing.
Results:
We observed that higher Mg2+, nucleoside triphosphate (NTP) concentrations and longer reaction duration can improve the RNA yield from in vitro transcription, specifically for longer and more complicated constructs. Our improved SEC-based denaturing RNA purification effectively halved the experiment duration and labor without introducing any contaminant. Finally, this study increased the accuracy and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of selective 2'-hydroxyl acylation analyzed by primer extension (SHAPE) chemical probing for analyzing RNA structure.
Conclusion:
Part or all of our modified method can improve almost any RNA-related study from protein-RNA interaction analysis to crystallography.
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Transcription
Transcription is the process of synthesizing RNA from a DNA sequence by RNA polymerase. It is the first step in producing a protein from a gene sequence. Additionally, many other proteins and regulatory sequences are involved in the proper synthesis of messenger RNA (mRNA). Regulation of transcription is responsible for the differentiation of all the different types of cells and often for the proper cellular response to environmental signals.
Transcription Can Produce Different Kinds...
RNA Stability
Transcription Factors
Eukaryotic Transcription Activators
The binding domains are capable of recognizing and interacting with regulatory sequences on the DNA. These...
Transcription Elongation Factors
The transcription elongation is regulated via pausing of RNA polymerase on several occasions during transcription. In bacteria, these halts are necessary because the transcription of DNA into mRNA is coupled to the translation of that mRNA...
Transcription Attenuation in Prokaryotes
There are several different mechanisms used to attenuate transcription. In ribosome mediated...

