Piece by Piece: Building a Ribozyme.

Piece by Piece: Building a Ribozyme.

J Biol Chem. 2020 Jan 17;:

Authors: Gray MW, Gopalan V

Abstract
The ribosome and ribonuclease P (RNase P) are cellular ribonucleoprotein complexes that perform peptide bond synthesis and phosphodiester bond cleavage, respectively. Both are ancient biological assemblies that were already present in the last universal common ancestor of all life. The large subunit rRNA in the ribosome and the RNA subunit of RNase P are the ribozyme components required for catalysis. Here, we explore the idea that these two large ribozymes may have begun their evolutionary odyssey as an assemblage of RNA “fragments” smaller than the contemporary full-length versions and that they transitioned through distinct stages along a pathway that may have also enabled the evolution of other non-coding RNAs.

PMID: 31953324 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher]