Artificial genetic molecule produces enzymes

New Scientist : Xeno nucleic acid (XNA) is a synthetic genetic molecule; it doesn’t exist in nature. Its bases are the same five as those in DNA and RNA. However, they bond to sugars other than deoxyribose and ribose, the sugars in DNA and RNA, respectively. Philipp Holliger of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, and his colleagues have used XNA to create enzymes that also don’t exist in nature. The XNA that Holliger’s team has made can’t replicate itself, but the enzymes that the researchers have produced can cut and paste both RNA—like natural enzymes do—and XNA. The XNA molecules that Holliger’s team developed suggest that life on other worlds could have formed from similar molecules that aren’t DNA and RNA. Holliger also believes that XNA could be used as a medical treatment that targets RNA viruses or the RNA messages that trigger cancers.