The sequence specificity of the “10–23” RNA-cleaving DNA enzyme can be utilized to discriminate between subtle differences in nucleic acid sequence. We examined this potential by comparing the cleavage activity of DNAzymes that target sequences derived from a relatively conserved segment of the L1 gene from different human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes. DNAzyme activity was found to be highly sensitive to mismatches between its binding domain and substrate sequences containing polymorphisms. Type-specific DNAzyme-cleavable substrates can also be generated by genomic PCR using a chimeric primer containing three bases of RNA. The RNA component enables each amplicon to be cleavable in the presence of its matching DNAzyme. In this format, the specificity of DNAzyme cleavage is defined by Watson-Crick interactions between one substrate-binding domain (arm I) and the polymorphic sequence that is amplified during polymerase chain reaction (PCR). DNAzyme-mediated cleavage of amplicons generated by this method was used to examine the HPV status of genomic DNA derived from Caski cells, which are known to be positive for HPV16. This method is applicable to many types of nucleic acid sequence variation, including single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).
