Efficient Enzymatic Synthesis of Phosphoroselenoate RNA by Using Adenosine 5′‐(α‐P‐Seleno)triphosphate

Se the way to RNA: Adenosine 5′-(α-P-seleno)triphosphate (ATPαSe) has been synthesized and efficiently and diastereoselectively incorporated into RNA through enzymatic synthesis (see scheme). The digestion of the phosphoroselenoate RNA with phosphodiesterase is slower than that of the nonmodified RNA. This enzymatic synthesis can be generally applied in the preparation of multimilligram quantities of selenium-derivatized RNAs for X-ray crystallography.