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 protein enzymes), and contributed to the RNA world hypothesis, which suggests that RNA may have been important in the evolution of prebiotic self-replicating systems. The most common activities of natural or in vitro evolved ribozymes are the cleavage (or ligation) of RNA and DNA and peptide bond formation. Researchers who are investigating the origins of life through the RNA world hypothesis have been working on discovering a ribozyme with the capacity to self-replicate, which would require it to have the ability to catalytically synthesize polymers of RNA. This should be able to happen in prebiotically plausible conditions with high rates of copying accuracy to prevent degradation of information but also allowing for the occurrence of occasional errors during the copying process to allow for Darwinian evolution to proceed. Here you can see a recent cryoEM structure of one of the most studied ribozymes, the Tetrahymena ribozyme (PDB code: 7YCI)

#molecularart ... #immolecular ... #RNA ... #evolution ... #catalysis ..: #tetrahymena ... #ribozyme ... #cryoem

Structure rendered with @proteinimaging and depicted with @corelphotopaint