LAUSR

Deoxyxylonucleic acid (dxNA) is a synthetic polymer that might have potential for heredity and evolution. Because of dxNA's unusual backbone geometry, sequence information stored in it is presumed to be inaccessible to natural nucleic acids or proteins. Despite a large structural similarity with natural nucleotides, incorporation of 2′‐deoxyxylonucleotides (dxNTs) through the action of polymerases is limited. We present the identification of a mutant of the DNA polymerase Therminator with increased tolerance to deoxyxylose‐induced backbone distortions. Whereas the original polymerase stops after incorporation of two consecutive dxNTs, the mutant is able to catalyse the extension of incorporated dxNTs with 2′‐deoxyribonucleotides (dNTs) and the incorporation of up to four dxNTs alternates with dNTs, thereby translocating a highly distorted double helix throughout the entire polymerase. A single His‐to‐Arg substitution very close to the catalytic site residues is held to be responsible for interaction with the primer phosphate groups and for stabilizing nucleotide sugar‐induced distortions during incorporation and translocation.