Crystal structure of a closed ternary complex of a HNA Reverse Transcriptase in complex with a HNA/DNA duplex
Cédric Gutfreund, Mikhail Abramov, Frédérick Coosemans, Philipp Holliger, Piet Herdewijn, Karin Betz, Andreas Marx · 2026
Read Crystal structure of a closed ternary complex of a HNA Reverse Transcriptase in complex with a HNA/DNA duplex by Cédric Gutfreund, Mikhail Abramov, Frédérick Coosemans, Philipp Holliger, Piet Herdewijn, Karin Betz, Andreas Marx (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13426950.txt.
Description
Gutfreund and colleagues published a 2026 study on the structure of an enzyme that copies a fake DNA. HNA is a lab-made cousin of DNA with a six-sided sugar ring. Enzymes that read it back into DNA are key for lab selection work. The team froze one such enzyme mid-step and mapped its shape.
Their crystal map reached fine detail, showing the enzyme in a closed grip. Fingers and thumb parts of the enzyme clamped down tighter than in earlier maps. The incoming DNA letter paired neatly with the HNA letter at the active site. One HNA unit flipped its ring shape between the open and closed states. Such flex must guide future enzyme tuning, the authors say.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Cédric Gutfreund, Mikhail Abramov, Frédérick Coosemans, Philipp Holliger, Piet Herdewijn, Karin Betz, Andreas Marx |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 30 KB |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |