A DNA-templated aldol reaction as a model for the formation of pentose sugars in the RNA world

Article abstract of DOI:10.1002/anie.200503387

Sugar on a stick: A DNA template can bind two complementary oligonucleotides, one derivatized with glyceraldehyde (blue) and the other with glycolaldehyde (red), resulting in a cross-aldol reaction that forms pentose sugars. This reaction system serves as

Full text of DOI:10.1002/anie.200503387

Communications
Origin of Life
DOI: 10.1002/anie.200503387
A DNA-Templated Aldol Reaction as a Model for
the Formation of Pentose Sugars in the RNA
World**
Michael Oberhuber and Gerald F. Joyce*
An early stage in the history of life on Earth is thought to have
involved RNA genomes and RNA catalysts, an era commonly
referred to as the “RNA world”.[1,2] RNA-based life would
have required substantial amounts of the building blocks of
RNA, such as the sugar ribose. The formation of ribose and
other pentoses from simple precursors involves a substrate-
specific cross-aldol reaction of glyceraldehyde and glycolal-
dehyde.[3] Without enzymatic control, however, a network of
competing pathways, including self-aldol, isomerization, and
retro-aldol reactions, gives rise to a complex mixture of
compounds that includes only a small amount of pentoses and
challenges even the most advanced analytical techniques.[4]
While several laboratories have reported conditions that can
lead to an increased yield of ribose and other pentoses from
simple aldehydes,[5–9] a chemical system that allows direct and
systematic investigation of the reaction of glyceraldehyde and
glycolaldehyde has remained elusive. Such a system would
enable examination of the kinetic and mechanistic features of
this reaction, setting the stage for the development of RNA
catalysts that can be used to synthesize ribose, analogous to
those that may have existed in an RNA world.
The present study demonstrates a DNA-templated model
system that allows the selective formation of pentoses by a
cross-aldol reaction of glyceraldehyde and glycolaldehyde.
DNA-templated chemistry parallels natureꢀs approach to
selectivity by exploiting the molecular recognition properties
of biological macromolecules to direct the reactivity of small
molecules.[10] The reactivity of the aldehydes was controlled
by linking them to oligonucleotide “handles”, which were
recognized by Watson–Crick pairing to a complementary
[*] Dr. M. Oberhuber,[+] Prof. Dr. G. F. Joyce
Departments of Chemistry and Molecular Biology and
The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology
The Scripps Research Institute
La Jolla, CA 92037 (USA)
Fax: (+1)858-784-2943
E-mail: gjoyce@scripps.edu
[+] Current address:
Institute of Organic Chemistry and
Center for Molecular Biosciences
Leopold-Franzens University of Innsbruck
6020 Innsbruck (Austria)
[**] This work was supported by NASA and The Skaggs Institute for
Chemical Biology at The Scripps Research Institute. M.O. was
supported by postdoctoral fellowship J2296 from the Austrian
National Science Fund (FWF) and the Max Kade Foundation.
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW
under http://www.angewandte.org or from the author.
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DNA template. These handles also made it possible to use
sensitive detection methods available for nucleic acids to
overcome the analytical challenges. Each aldehyde was linked
to a different synthetic oligonucleotide (Scheme 1), allowing
The design of the diol precursor for the glyceraldehyde-
DNA conjugate (DNA9-3) involved a photolabile protection
scheme to prevent formation of glycolaldehyde. The hydroxy
group vicinal to the phosphate was protected with an o-NO2-
benzyl moiety, which is stable under the
conditions of DNA synthesis and deprotec-
tion, and can be cleaved by irradiation with
UV light following periodate oxidation.[13]
The diol precursor for DNA9-3 was pre-
pared by standard DNA synthesis using a
glyceraldehyde synthon as the 3’-terminal
residue. The precursor was purified by
PAGE and converted to the corresponding
aldehyde by oxidation and photolysis
(Scheme 2, bottom). The identities of
DNA9-3 and 2-DNA12 were verified by
matrix-assisted laser desorption time-of-
flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry
(see Supporting Information) and by
DNA-templated reductive amination[11]
(data not shown).
Scheme 1.
By employing the same approach, longer
versions of the two DNA–aldehyde conju-
gates were synthesized and used to explore
the two to be co-aligned in the desired orientation through
binding to a common template. The template was designed to
promote the cross-aldol reaction by increasing the effective
concentration of the two juxtaposed aldehydes, at the same
time suppressing undesired reactions. Over the past few years
DNA templates have been shown to promote a remarkably
diverse set of organic reactions.[10,11] A DNA-directed aldol
reaction, however, has not yet been described.
A new class of oligonucleotide–aldehyde conjugates was
synthesized by using a phosphoramidite-based approach. The
synthetic strategy involved vicinal diols as aldehyde synthons,
which were incorporated during solid-phase DNA synthesis
and converted to the corresponding aldehyde through period-
ate oxidation.[12] The 5’-glyceryl-DNA conjugate was synthe-
sized in the 5’-to-3’ direction, purified by denaturing poly-
acrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), and oxidized to the
glycolaldehyde-bearing DNA (2-DNA12; Scheme 2, top).
different formats for the template-directed reaction. The
compound 5’-T15GTGAAATGC-3’-glyceraldehyde (DNA24-
3) was efficiently [5’-32P]-labeled by using [g-32P]-ATP and T4
polynucleotide kinase. It was mixed with an excess of
glycolaldehyde-5’-CGATACTGATAGGACGAAGAGAT-
GGCACC-3’ (2-DNA29) and a complementary template that
contained an unpaired thymidylate opposite the site of the
juxtaposed aldehydes. Following incubation at pH 8.5 and
238C, the reaction mixture was analyzed by PAGE, which
demonstrated formation of products with the electrophoretic
mobility expected for the pentose-linked DNA (DNA24-5-
DNA29) (Figure 1; lanes 2, 3, and M). There was no detectable
reaction in the absence of the template or in the presence of a
mismatched template (Figure 1; lanes 6 and 7, respectively).
If an analogue of DNA24-3 was used that contained glycerol
instead of glyceraldehyde, no product formation was
observed (Figure 1; lane 8). Similarly, replacing 2-DNA29 by
Scheme 2.
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Figure 2. pH dependence of the DNA-templated aldol reaction. Reac-
tion conditions were as described in the legend to Figure 1, except for
differences in pH.
Figure 1. DNA-templated cross-aldol reaction. Reaction of 5 nm labeled
ably arising from elimination of glyceraldehyde-2,3-cyclic-
phosphate (data not shown). Mildly alkaline pH (8.5) and
ambient temperature (238C) were chosen as the standard
reaction conditions, for which the observed rate of reaction
was about 4 ” 10À6 minÀ1.
DNA24-3 and 2 mm unlabeled 2-DNA29 in the presence of 1 mm
complementary template (lanes 2–5), no template (lane 6), or 1 mm
mismatched template (lane 7). Lanes 2 and 3 correspond to reaction
in the absence of l-Lys for 6 and 48 h, respectively; lanes 4 and 5
correspond to reaction in the presence of 50 mml-Lys for 6 and 48 h,
respectively; lanes 6 and 7 correspond to reaction in the absence of
l-Lys for 48 h. Lane 1 contains unreacted labeled DNA24-3; lane 8
corresponds to a control reaction (48 h) employing a labeled DNA-
glycerol conjugate instead of DNA24-3, and lane M contains a marker
of the same composition as DNA24-5-DNA29 but with thymidine in
place of the newly-formed pentose. All reaction mixtures contained
10 mm MgCl2, 100 mm NaCl, and 50 mm TAPS (pH 8.5). Reaction
products were separated by denaturing 20% PAGE, an autoradiogram
of which is shown.
In view of the well-established role of amines as organo-
catalysts,[16] and with regard to their potential role as cofactors
in RNA catalysis, the DNA-templated aldol reaction was
studied in the presence of various amines and amino acids. A
family of biological aldolases, as well as catalytic antibody
aldolases that have been reported, utilize a lysine residue to
catalyze aldol reactions via a Schiff-base intermediate.[17,18]
This provided the impetus for experiments identifying l-Lys
as a potential catalyst for the DNA-templated aldol reaction
(Figure 1; lanes 4 and 5). Elevated concentrations of l-Lys
accelerated the reaction up to 20-fold, but concentrations
below 10 mm had no significant effect (Figure 3), suggesting a
slow second-order rate of formation of the Schiff base.
the corresponding glycerol-containing DNA eliminated the
observed reaction (data not shown).
In order to carry out mass-spectrometric analysis of the
products, unlabeled DNA9-3 was incubated with a slight
excess of 2-DNA12 in the presence of a complementary
template. MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry of the PAGE-
purified products gave a mass consistent with the formation of
a pentose linking the two substrate oligonucleotides (see
Supporting Information). The DNA24-5-DNA29 products
were prepared similarly and analyzed by a primer extension
reaction, which employed a 17 mer oligonucleotide that
hybridized to the 3’ end of the product molecules and was
extended by reverse transcriptase. A minor pause with
substantial read-through was seen at the aldol junction (see
Supporting Information), similar to the behavior of an abasic
site,[14] and excluding the possibility of an unusual connectiv-
ity such as would result from the reaction of an aldehyde with
a nucleobase. It was not possible to obtain sufficient material
to determine the relative amounts of the four pentose sugars
and their respective enantiomers. The 2’,5’-phosphodiester
linkage that is formed at the aldol junction (Scheme 1) allows
read-through by reverse transcriptase,[15] but the minor pause
that occurs at the junction cannot be taken to indicate the
presence of any particular sugar.
Figure 3. DNA-templated aldol reaction in the presence of varying
concentrations of l-Lys. Reaction conditions were as described in the
legend to Figure 1, except for the addition of 0–500 mm l-Lys.
The dipeptide Lys–Lys was similarly effective as l-Lys, but
l-Pro, a well-known catalyst of aldol reactions in organic
solvents,[16] was ineffective in the DNA-templated format,
even at high concentrations (Figure 4). The aldol reaction also
was accelerated by small aliphatic diamines, especially
putrescine (Figure 4), suggesting the need for an extended
aliphatic primary amine. As a negative control, the reaction
was analyzed in the presence of 1m NaCl, excluding the
possibility that the enhanced rate with certain amines was due
to the high ionic strength of these solutions.
The rate of the DNA-templated aldol reaction was
measured as a function of pH (Figure 2). Consistent with a
base-catalyzed reaction, the observed pseudo-first-order rate
constant increased at alkaline pH, but was nearly unchanged
at neutral to acidic pH. At elevated pH and temperatures a
degradation product of DNA24-3 also was detected, presum-
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concentrated aqueous NH3 at 558C for 2–20 h for standard DNA or
10m MeNH2 in H2O:EtOH (1:1 v/v) at 238C for 14–20 h for diol-
bearing DNA. All oligonucleotides were purified by PAGE. Diol
precursor oligonucleotides were adsorbed on a Sep-Pak C18 resin
(Waters) and oxidized with 100 mm NaIO4 (ca. 3 mL), which was
allowed to drip slowly through the cartridge at 238C over 15–20 min.
After washing with H2O (5 mL), then 10% (v/v) MeOH (1.5 mL), the
aldehyde-bearing DNA was eluted with 50% (v/v) acetonitrile
(5 mL). Photolysis was carried out at 238C for 10–15 min using a
100-W long-wavelength UV lamp.
DNA-templated reactions were carried out in the presence of
10 mm MgCl2, 100 mm NaCl, and 50 mm 3-[(2-hydroxy-1,1-bis(hy-
droxymethyl)ethyl)amino]propanesulfonic acid (TAPS, pH 8.5) at
238C, unless otherwise stated. Aliquots were taken at 4–10 different
time points and stored at À808C in the presence of 90 mm Tris-borate
(pH 8.0), 20 mm Na2EDTA, 10% (w/v) sucrose, and 8m urea. The
samples were analyzed by denaturing PAGE, using a Molecular
Dynamics PhosphorImager to quantify the radiolabeled material.
Supporting Information describes additional experimental pro-
cedures, including synthesis of the solid-supported glyceraldehyde
synthon (Scheme S1), radiolabeling of oligonucleotides, mass-spec-
trometric analysis of the substrates and products of the DNA-
templated aldol reaction (Figure S1), and primer extension analysis of
the pentose-linked DNA (Figure S2).
Figure 4. DNA-templated aldol reaction in the presence of various
amine-containing cofactors. Reaction conditions were as described in
the legend to Figure 1, except for the addition of no cofactor (lane À),
50 mm cofactor (indicated), or 1m NaCl.
The influence of the template architecture on the aldol
reaction was examined by replacing the unpaired thymidylate
opposite the aldol junction with a hexaethylene glycol linker,
or by placing the two aldehydes at the same end of hybridized
DNA strands. Consistent with the reduced frequency of
substrate encounter in these formats, the reaction rate
decreased by about threefold compared to the standard
format, but was similarly accelerated by the addition of 50 mm
l-Lys. A variety of other template architectures were tested,
but none resulted in an increased rate of reaction compared to
the standard format.
Received: September 23, 2005
Published online: October 20, 2005
Keywords: enzyme models · nucleic acids · ribose · ribozymes ·
.
template synthesis
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In summary, this first reported example of a DNA-
templated aldol reaction demonstrates how nucleic acids can
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and glycolaldehyde. This model system allows kinetic and
mechanistic investigation of the template-directed formation
of pentoses, relevant to the corresponding biosynthetic
reaction in an RNA world. Aliphatic amines, such as l-Lys,
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Oligonucleotides were prepared by using a PerSeptive Biosystems
Expedite 8909 Nucleic Acid Synthesis System, employing standard
methods. Diol-containing oligonucleotides were synthesized by using
either 3’-glyceryl CPG (Glen Research) or a solid-supported glycer-
aldehyde synthon (see Supporting Information). Oligonucleotides
were cleaved from the solid support and deprotected by using either
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