What is a ribozyme?
Q: What is a ribozyme?
A: A ribozyme is an RNA molecule that can help certain biochemical reactions, similar to the action of protein enzymes. It is also known as catalytic RNA.
Q: What are some of the roles of ribozymes?
A: Ribozymes work in the ribosome to link amino acids during protein synthesis, take part in RNA splicing, viral replication, and transfer RNA biosynthesis.
Q: How did the discovery of ribozymes lead to further research?
A: The discovery of ribozymes showed that RNA can be both genetic material (like DNA) and a biological catalyst (like enzymes). This led to the development of the RNA world hypothesis, which suggests that RNA acts in the evolution of prebiotic self-replicating systems.
Q: Can scientists create artificial ribozymes in laboratories?
A: Yes, investigators studying the origin of life have produced artificial ribozymes in laboratories that can catalyze their own synthesis under certain conditions such as an RNA polymerase ribozyme. Improved variants have been developed such as "Round-18" polymerase and "tC19Z" which can add up to 95 nucleotides with great accuracy.
Q: Are there any potential therapeutic applications for ribozymes?
A: Yes, some researchers believe that certain types of ribozymes may play an important role as therapeutic agents by targeting defined RNAs sequences for cleavage or acting as biosensors for gene discovery and genomics applications.
Q: What was proposed by the 'RNA world hypothesis'?
A: The 'RNA world hypothesis' proposes that RNA plays a role in prebiotic self-replicating systems and has been used to explain how life on Earth began from non-living matter billions of years ago.
