Mass Spectrometry as a Quantitative Tool for SpCas9 sgRNA Quality Control.

Mass spectrometry (MS) has long been used for quality control of oligonucleotide therapeutics, including single-guide RNAs (sgRNAs) for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats techniques. However, the application of MS is limited to qualitative assays in most cases. Here, we showed that electrospray-ionization quadrupole time-of-flight MS (ESI-QTOF-MS) assays can be quantitative for chemical species found in sgRNA samples.

Combination of biochar and immobilized bacteria accelerates polyacrylamide biodegradation in soil by both bio-augmentation and bio-stimulation strategies.

Polyacrylamide (PAM) has been used extensively due to its well-known stable chemical properties, but limited information is available on the biodegradation of soil-containing PAM. In this work, sufficient degradation of PAM was achieved via the addition of the Klebsiella sp. PCX-biochar composite to PAM-containing soil, due to the synergic effect of bio-augmentation and bio-stimulation.

Correction: DNA-catalyzed glycosylation using aryl glycoside donors.

Correction for 'DNA-catalyzed glycosylation using aryl glycoside donors' by Anthony R. Hesser et al., Chem.

DNA-Catalyzed Introduction of Azide at Tyrosine for Peptide Modification.

We show that DNA enzymes (deoxyribozymes) can introduce azide functional groups at tyrosine residues in peptide substrates. Using in vitro selection, we identified deoxyribozymes that transfer the 2'-azido-2'-deoxyadenosine 5'-monophosphoryl group (2'-Az-dAMP) from the analogous 5'-triphosphate (2'-Az-dATP) onto the tyrosine hydroxyl group of a peptide, which is either tethered to a DNA anchor or free. Some of the new deoxyribozymes are general with regard to the amino acid residues surrounding the tyrosine, while other DNA enzymes are sequence-selective.

DNA-catalyzed glycosylation using aryl glycoside donors.

We report the identification by in vitro selection of Zn(2+)/Mn(2+)-dependent deoxyribozymes that glycosylate the 3'-OH of a DNA oligonucleotide. Both β and α anomers of aryl glycosides can be used as the glycosyl donors. Individual deoxyribozymes are each specific for a particular donor anomer.