Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

mRNA Display

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Astrobiology

  • 343 Accesses

Definition

The mRNA display method is an in vitro selection technique that allows the isolation of functional proteins from large combinatorial libraries of polypeptide variants (Roberts and Szostak 1997; Nemoto et al. 1997). This technology has been used to determine the probability of occurrence of proteins with a specific function in the vast sequence space of all possible polypeptides.

Overview

Functional proteins might have originated from early peptides that initially were synthesized as random amino acid polymers. In order to test the likelihood of such random mixtures containing functional polypeptides, a large number of polypeptides need to be tested as this likelihood might be low. While there are numerous methods to sample mixtures of proteins, the approach that can search the largest number of mutants is most suited to address this question. mRNA display is a technique that can sample libraries of up to 1013randomized protein variants. In mRNA display, the messenger RNA...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References and Further Readings

  • Chao F-A et al (2013) Structure and dynamics of a primordial catalytic fold generated by in vitro evolution. Nat Chem Biol 9:81–83

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Golynskiy MV, Seelig B (2010) De novo enzymes: from computational design to mRNA display. Trends Biotechnol 28:340–345

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keefe AD, Szostak JW (2001) Functional proteins from a random-sequence library. Nature 410:715–718

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Nemoto N, Miyamoto-Sato E, Husimi Y, Yanagawa H (1997) In vitro virus: Bonding of mRNA bearing puromycin at the 3′-terminal end to the C-terminal end of its encoded protein on the ribosome in vitro. FEBS Lett 414:405–408

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts RW, Szostak JW (1997) RNA-peptide fusions for the in vitro selection of peptides and proteins. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 94:12297–12302

    Article  MATH  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Seelig B, Szostak JW (2007) Selection and evolution of enzymes from a partially randomized non-catalytic scaffold. Nature 448:828–831

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Takahashi TT, Austin RJ, Roberts RW (2003) mRNA display: ligand discovery, interaction analysis and beyond. Trends Biochem Sci 28:159–165

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yanagawa H (2013) Exploration of the origin and evolution of globular proteins by mRNA display. Biochemistry 52:3841–3851

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics & BioTechnology Institute, University of Minnesota, 140 Gortner Laboratory, 1479 Gortner Ave., 55108, St. Paul, MN, USA

    Burckhard Seelig

Authors
  1. Burckhard Seelig
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Burckhard Seelig .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Biología Molecular, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Ricardo Amils

  2. Labo. d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux (LAB), Observatoire Aquitain des Sciences de l'Univers (OASU), Floirac CX, France

    Muriel Gargaud

  3. Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), Inst. Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial, Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain

    José Cernicharo Quintanilla

  4. Geophysical Lab., Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

    Henderson James Cleaves

  5. Astronomy Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA

    William M. Irvine

  6. Dépt. Sc. de la Terre et de l’Atmosphère, Université du Québec, Montréal, Montreal, Québec, Canada

    Daniele Pinti

  7. Centre National d'Etudes Spatiale (CNES) DPI/E2U, Paris CX, France

    Michel Viso

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this entry

Cite this entry

Seelig, B. (2014). mRNA Display. In: Amils, R., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_5214-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_5214-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27833-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation