Chemistry and Biology of Self-Cleaving Ribozymes

Randi M Jimenez; Julio A Polanco; Andrej Lupták

doi:10.1016/j.tibs.2015.09.001

Chemistry and Biology of Self-Cleaving Ribozymes

Trends Biochem Sci. 2015 Nov;40(11):648-661. doi: 10.1016/j.tibs.2015.09.001. Epub 2015 Oct 15.

Authors

Randi M Jimenez¹, Julio A Polanco¹, Andrej Lupták²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA.
² Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA; Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA; Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA. Electronic address: aluptak@uci.edu.

Abstract

Self-cleaving ribozymes were discovered 30 years ago, but their biological distribution and catalytic mechanisms are only beginning to be defined. Each ribozyme family is defined by a distinct structure, with unique active sites accelerating the same transesterification reaction across the families. Biochemical studies show that general acid-base catalysis is the most common mechanism of self-cleavage, but metal ions and metabolites can be used as cofactors. Ribozymes have been discovered in highly diverse genomic contexts throughout nature, from viroids to vertebrates. Their biological roles include self-scission during rolling-circle replication of RNA genomes, co-transcriptional processing of retrotransposons, and metabolite-dependent gene expression regulation in bacteria. Other examples, including highly conserved mammalian ribozymes, suggest that many new biological roles are yet to be discovered.

Keywords: aptazymes; retrotransposon; riboregulation; riboswitch; ribozyme; self-scission.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Hydrolysis
RNA, Catalytic / metabolism*

Substances

RNA, Catalytic

Grants and funding

F31 GM103241/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States