Sequence-specific endoribonucleases

Abstract

Ribonucleases are nucleolytic enzymes that commonly occur in living organisms and act by cleaving RNA molecules. These enzymes are involved in basic cellular processes, including the RNA maturation that accompanies the formation of functional RNAs, as well as RNA degradation that enables removal of defective or dangerous molecules or ones that have already fulfilled their cellular functions. RNA degradation is also one of the main processes that determine the amount of transcripts in the cell and thus it makes an important element of the gene expression regulation system. Ribonucleases can catalyse reactions involving RNA molecules containing specific sequences, structures or sequences within a specific structure, they can also cut RNAs non-specifically. In this article, we discuss ribonucleases cleaving the phosphodiester bond inside RNA molecules within or close to particular sequences. We also present examples of protein engineering of ribonucleases towards the development of molecular tools for sequence-specific cleavage of RNA.