Repurposing enzymatic transferase reactions for targeted labeling and analysis of DNA and RNA

Produced as linear biopolymers from four major types of building blocks, DNA and RNA are further furnished with a range of covalent modifications. Despite the impressive specificity of natural enzymes, the transferred groups are often poor reporters and not amenable to further derivatization. Therefore, strategies based on repurposing some of these enzymatic reactions to accept derivatized versions of the transferrable groups have been exploited. By far the most widely used are S-adenosylmethionine-dependent methyltransferases, which along with several other nucleic acids modifying enzymes offer a broad selection of tagging chemistries and molecular features on DNA and RNA that can be targeted in vitro and in vivo. Engineered enzymatic reactions have been implemented in validated DNA sequencing-based protocols for epigenome analysis. The utility of chemo-enzymatic labeling is further enhanced with recent advances in physical detection of individual reporter groups on DNA using super resolution microscopy and nanopore sensing enabling single-molecule multiplex analysis of genetic and epigenetic marks in minute samples. Altogether, a number of new powerful techniques are currently in use or on the verge of real benchtop applications as research tools or next generation diagnostics.