Patent ID: 6803194
Filing Date: 2004-10-12
Classification: C12N

Abstract:
A method of assigning a function to a target nucleic acid comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding a motif of interest, said method comprising the steps of:growing a host cell culture comprising host cells that express ribonucleic acid molecules encoded by a combinatorial ribozyme library, wherein: each said ribonucleic acid molecule comprises a binding region complementary to a transcription product of said target nucleic acid, and a catalytic domain that cleaves a sequence within said transcription product of said target nucleic acid that encodes said motif of interest so that expression of said transcription product is disrupted and an altered host cell is produced; a function of the target nucleic acid or encoded product is unknown; the combinatorial ribozyme library comprises nucleic acids encoding a plurality of the ribonucleic acid molecules each containing a recognition sequence for one of a plurality of degenerate sequences based upon a consensus nucleotide sequence encoding the motif; detecting phenotypic changes in the altered host cell; and correlating the phenotypic changes in said altered host cell, as compared to a control host cell, with the identity of said target nucleic acid by isolating DNA from said altered host cell and determining a specific ribozyme sequence contained therein that contains a binding sequence that is complementary to a transcription product of the target nucleic acid, whereby a function for said target nucleic acid is assigned based upon said phenotypic changes in said altered host cell.