Fig. 1: Incorporation of BpyAla in 2 sites in the p19 dimer.
From: An unnatural enzyme with endonuclease activity towards small non-coding RNAs
a Incorporation of BpyAla site-specifically into the VSRS protein p19 dimer introduces a metal binding site. Here we used copper to bind to BpyAla. If the metal can cleave the phosphodiester linkage within the p19 substrate, then it should induce site-specific strand cleavage of the bound siRNA or miRNA. Cleavage can occur on either strand. Created with BioRender.com. b Crystal structure of the p19 dimer with K67 (blue) and T111 (red) highlighted PDB: 1RPU. c Overall Schematic representation of the potential disruption of the RNA silencing pathway upon treatment with the engineered p19 endonuclease. Created with BioRender.com.
