Single-stranded RNA as primers of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase for template-independent DNA polymerization

Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase(Td T) has been characterized as template-independent polymerase using single-stranded DNA(ss DNA) as primers to generate random oligonucleotides. However, the extension performance of Td T to single-stranded RNA(ss RNA) is vague. By systematically comparing and contrasting the performance of Td T-catalyzed ss DNA and ss RNA extension, it is indicated that the catalytic efficiency of ss RNA as primers was about 3 times lower than ss DNA as primers. Collectively, it is believed that understanding the catalytic performance of Td T will help to design the strategy to synthesize chimeric DNA on 3-OH of ss RNA, which becomes invaluable.