Nucleic acid enzyme substrates

1. A method for modifying a polynucleotide substrate to provide a detectable effect, the method comprising contacting the substrate with a catalytic nucleic acid enzyme wherein:

the polynucleotide substrate comprises a sequence N 1 -N 2 -N 3 -N 4 -N 5 -N 6 -N 7 -N 8 -rR-rY-N 9 -N 10 -N 11 -N 12 -N 13 -N 14 -N 15 wherein rR is a purine ribonucleotide, rY is a uracil ribonucleotide, each of N 1 -N 15 are deoxyribonucleotides, six or more of N 5 -N 13 are cytosine nucleotides, N 9 is a cytosine nucleotide, and less than three of N 9 -N 15 are guanine nucleotides;

the catalytic nucleic acid enzyme is an MNAzyme or a DNAzyme; and

catalytic modification of the polynucleotide substrate by the catalytic nucleic acid enzyme during said contacting provides the detectable effect.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the catalytic nucleic acid is a catalytically active multi-component nucleic acid enzyme (MNAzyme), and the method comprises:

(a) providing first and second oligonucleotide partzyme components of the MNAzyme, wherein the first oligonucleotide partzyme and the second oligonucleotide partzyme are capable of self-assembling upon binding to a target to form the MNAzyme;

(b) providing the isolated polynucleotide substrate, wherein upon hybridization to the MNAzyme the polynucleotide substrate is capable of being catalytically modified by the MNAzyme to thereby provide the detectable effect;

(c) contacting the two or more oligonucleotide partzyme components with a sample putatively containing the target under conditions permitting:

(1) self-assembly of the MNAzyme upon binding to the target, and

(2) catalytic activity of the MNAzyme upon hybridizing to the polynucleotide substrate to thereby provide the detectable effect; and

(d) detecting the detectable effect which is indicative of the target.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the target is a nucleic acid.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the nucleic acid is selected from the group consisting of DNA, methylated DNA, alkylated DNA, RNA, methylated RNA, microRNA, siRNA, shRNA, tRNA, mRNA, snoRNA, stRNA, smRNA, pre- and pri-microRNA, other non-coding RNAs, ribosomal RNA, derivatives thereof, amplicons, or any combination thereof.

5. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the method comprises amplifying the nucleic acid by one or more of: polymerase chain reaction (PCR), strand displacement amplification (SDA), loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), rolling circle amplification (RCA), transcription-mediated amplification (TMA), self-sustained sequence replication (3 SR), nucleic acid sequence based amplification (NASBA), or reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the catalytic nucleic acid is a DNAzyme.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the catalytic nucleic acid is a 10:23 DNAzyme.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the polynucleotide substrate further comprises a detectable label for detecting the polynucleotide substrate.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the polynucleotide substrate further comprises a detectable portion and a quencher portion that provide the detectable effect upon catalytic modification of the polynucleotide substrate by said catalytic nucleic acid enzyme.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the purine ribonucleotide comprises guanine.

11. The method according to claim 2 , said method further comprising providing:

two or more additional oligonucleotide partzymes capable of self-assembling in the presence of a different target to form a second catalytically active MNAzyme; and

at least one additional polynucleotide substrate

wherein said additional polynucleotide substrate is capable of being modified by said second MNAzyme in the presence of said different target.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein said additional polynucleotide substrate is not capable of being modified by said first MNAzyme.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the polynucleotide sequence is bound to a solid support.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the catalytic modification comprises cleavage of the polynucleotide substrate.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the catalytic modification comprises ligation of the polynucleotide substrate to a second polynucleotide substrate.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein said detectable effect is detected using fluorescence spectroscopy, surface plasmon resonance, mass spectroscopy, NMR, electron spin resonance, polarization fluorescence spectroscopy, circular dichroism, immunoassay, chromatography, radiometry, electrochemical, photometry, scintigraphy, electronic methods, UV, visible light or infra-red spectroscopy, enzymatic methods, or any combination thereof.