Multicopy single-stranded DNA

msDNA from Stigmatella aurantiaca compared with msDNA from the closely related Myxococcus xanthus. The hypervariable domain in the DNA sequence is shaded gray. The highly conserved AGC RNA sequence including the branch G is shaded pink. An RNA cleavage site between precursor and product forms of msDNA is indicated by a red triangle. Redrawn from Dhundale et al.[1]

Multicopy single-stranded DNA (msDNA) is a type of extrachromosomal satellite DNA that consists of a single-stranded DNA molecule covalently linked via a 2'-5'phosphodiester bond to an internal guanosine of an RNA molecule. The resultant DNA/RNA chimera possesses two stem-loops joined by a branch similar to the branches found in RNA splicing intermediates. The coding region for msDNA, called a "retron", also encodes a type of reverse transcriptase, which is essential for msDNA synthesis.[2]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference DhLaFuInIn1987 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Inouye S, Herzer PJ, Inouye M (February 1990). "Two independent retrons with highly diverse reverse transcriptases in Myxococcus xanthus". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 87 (3): 942–5. Bibcode:1990PNAS...87..942I. doi:10.1073/pnas.87.3.942. PMC 53385. PMID 1689062.