Alteration of sequence of a deleterious target molecule by ribozyme catalyzed trans-splicing

Abstract

Method for splicing a target nucleic acid molecule with a separate nucleic acid molecule. Such splicing generally causes production of a chimeric protein with advantageous features over that protein naturally produced from the target nucleic acid prior to splicing. The method includes contacting the target nucleic acid molecule with a catalytic nucleic acid molecule including the separate nucleic acid molecule. Such contacting is performed under conditions in which at least a portion of the separate nucleic acid molecule is spliced with at least a portion of the target nucleic acid molecule to form a chimeric nucleic acid molecule. In this method, the catalytic nucleic molecule is chosen so that it is not naturally associated with the separate nucleic acid molecule.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.