Selective inactivation of M-MuLV RT RNase H activity by site-directed PEGylation: an improved ability to synthesize long cDNA molecules

Moloney murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase (M-MuLV RT) is a domain structured enzyme that has the N-terminally located DNA polymerization activity and C-terminally located RNase H activity, which interferes with the efficient synthesis of long cDNA molecules. Here we present the PEGylation as a tool for engineering the M-MuLV RT derivative deficient in RNase H activity. We demonstrate that site-directed chemical modification (SDCM) of the RNase H domain by selectively PEGylating C635, one of the eight cysteine residues present in the reverse transcriptase (RT), specifically inactivated its ribonucleolytic activity. As a consequence, the efficiency of long cDNA molecules synthesis by modified enzyme was greatly increased.