File:Full_length_hammerhead_ribozyme.png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
ribozyme
Sign in to savethumb|3D structure of a hammerhead ribozyme
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- biocatalysts
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- topic's main category
- Category:Ribozymes
- Commons category
- Ribozymes
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~21 min read
Encyclopedic overview
11 sectionsContents
- Discovery
- Structure and mechanism
- Activities
- Ribozymes and the origin of life
- Ribozyme based origin of sexual reproduction
- Artificial ribozymes
- Known ribozymes
- See also
- Notes and references
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|3D structure of a hammerhead ribozyme
Ribozymes (ribonucleic acid enzymes) are RNA molecules that have the ability to catalyze specific biochemical reactions, including RNA splicing in gene expression, similar to the action of protein enzymes. The 1982 discovery of ribozymes demonstrated that RNA can be both genetic material (like DNA) and a biological catalyst (like proteins), and contributed to the RNA world hypothesis, which suggests that RNA may have been important in the evolution of prebiotic self-replicating systems.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “ribozyme” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.