Abstract
Since the discovery of the first catalytic RNA in 1981, the field of ribozyme research has developed from the discovery of catalytic RNA motifs in nature and the elucidation of their structures and catalytic mechanisms, into a field of engineering and design towards application in diagnostics, molecular biology and medicine. Owing to the development of powerful protocols for selection of nucleic acid catalysts with a desired functionality from random libraries, the spectrum of nucleic acid supported reactions has greatly enlarged, and importantly, ribozymes have been accompanied by DNAzymes. Current areas of research are the engineering of allosteric ribozymes for artificial regulation of gene expression, the design of ribozymes and DNAzymes for medicinal and environmental diagnostics, and the demonstration of RNA world relevant ribozyme activities. In addition, new catalytic motifs or novel genomic locations of known motifs continue to be discovered in all branches of life by the help of high-throughput bioinformatic approaches. Understanding the biological role of the catalytic RNA motifs widely distributed in diverse genetic contexts belongs to the big challenges of future RNA research.
Highlights
Nowadays, the term ‘ribozyme’ to designate an RNA catalyst is used with the same implicitness as the term ‘enzyme’ has always been used for proteinaceous biocatalysts
The fact that RNA can cleave and ligate itself, that cleavage of the 5′-trailer of tRNA in tRNA processing is mediated by the RNA subunit of RNase P, that introns may undergo self-splicing, and that the spliceosome and, even more impressively, the ribosome are ribozymes has found entry into the textbooks
The exciting field of research into RNA catalysis started more than 30 years ago and over the first two decades was dominated by the discovery and identification of several classes of ribozymes occurring in nature and the elucidation of their catalytic structures and mechanisms
Summary
Faculty Reviews are review articles written by the prestigious Members of Faculty Opinions. The articles are commissioned and peer reviewed before publication to ensure that the final, published version is comprehensive and accessible. The reviewers who approved the final version are listed with their names and affiliations. Any comments on the article can be found at the end of the article
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