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Why do xeno-nucleic acids require specially engineered enzymes for replication?
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synthetic biology
A scanning electron micrograph of cells of Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0—a synthetic bacterium.
Xeno-nucleic acids (XNAs) are synthetic molecules that utilize the natural base pairs of DNA but feature a backbone composed of sugars other than deoxyribose.1
Because of this structural difference, XNAs cannot be replicated by the standard DNA polymerase enzyme, which is specifically evolved to catalyze the synthesis of natural DNA. Consequently, the replication of XNAs requires the use of specially engineered enzymes capable of recognizing and processing these non-natural backbones to faithfully transcribe the genetic information into the desired XNA product.1