Shagufta Hasan, Amity University
Catalytic RNA, Ribozymes, found in the ribosomes form polypeptide chains by linking amino acids together. The RNA enzyme catalyzes a chemical reaction in a similar way to that of protein enzymes. They also participate in processes like RNA splicing, viral replication etc. Although they have attracted a great deal of research interest, very few have been identified in Homo sapiens.
Recently, a genome-wide approach to discovering a self-cleaving ribozyme, named Hovlinc, is developed and is now being recognized as a naturally occurring ribozyme in humans. The secondary structure and biochemical properties of this ribozyme indicate that it relates to an unidentified class of compact, self-cleaving ribozymes. The sequence of Hovlinc manifests a clear evolutionary path, from its appearance between ~130 and ~65 million years ago (Ma), to acquiring self-cleavage activity very lately, ~13-10 Ma, in chimpanzees and gorillas, the common predecessors of human. Hovlinc appears to be operative inside an organism and is rooted within a long non-coding RNA belonging to a class of very long intergenic non-coding RNAs. The existence of a catalytic RNA enzyme in lncRNA, which has been defined as being transcripts with lengths exceeding 200 nucleotides that are not translated into protein, creates the possibility that these transcripts could function by carrying catalytic RNA domains, says the researchers as they published.
Despite having a newly evolved class of ribozyme found, there is yet a lot to be known about this novel enzyme and its entire set of functions.
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Reference: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41589-021-00763-0#MOESM14
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