Selection of high-affinity RNA ligands to reverse transcriptase: inhibition of cDNA synthesis and RNase H activity

Specific, high-affinity RNA ligands to avian myeloblastosis virus and Moloney murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptases were isolated from a combinatorial RNA library using the SELEX (systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment) procedure. The selected RNA ligands bound their respective reverse transcriptases with approximately nanomolar dissociation constants. The ligands did not exhibit primary sequence conservation from selections against different target enzymes. Moreover, the selected ligands competed with the binding of template/primer complex and inhibited both the RNA-dependent DNA polymerase and the RNase H activities of the cognate reverse transcriptase. SELEX can yield both high-affinity and high-specificity oligonucleotide antagonists against specific members of a protein family.