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Engineering of hairpin ribozyme variants for RNA recombination and splicing
Author(s) -
Hieronymus Robert,
Müller Sabine
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/nyas.14052
Subject(s) - hairpin ribozyme , ribozyme , ligase ribozyme , rna , mammalian cpeb3 ribozyme , cleavage (geology) , rna splicing , chemistry , ligation , small hairpin rna , microbiology and biotechnology , computational biology , biophysics , biology , biochemistry , gene , paleontology , fracture (geology)
The hairpin ribozyme is a small, naturally occurring RNA that catalyzes the reversible cleavage of RNA substrates. Among the small endonucleolytic ribozymes, the hairpin ribozyme possesses the unique feature of the internal equilibrium between cleavage and ligation being shifted toward ligation. This allows control of the reaction outcome by structural design: fragments that are strongly bound to the ribozyme are preferentially ligated, whereas substrates that easily dissociate upon cleavage, such that they are not available for religation, are preferentially cleaved. We have made use of this characteristic feature in engineering a number of hairpin ribozyme variants by programmed conformational design that carry out cascades of cleavage and ligation reactions, and as a result mediate more complex RNA processing reactions. Here, we review our work on the engineering of hairpin ribozyme variants for RNA recombination and regular and back‐splicing, and discuss the relevance of such activities in early life.