Beta-globin co-transcriptional cleavage ribozyme

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Beta-globin co-transcriptional cleavage ribozyme

Type:	Gene;ribozyme;
2° structure:	Daub J
Seed alignment:	Published; PMID:15565159
Avg length:	189.6 nucleotides
Avg identity:	91%

The Beta-globin co-transcriptional cleavage ribozyme (CotC ribozyme) is an RNA enzyme known as a ribozyme.

Transcription termination of RNA polymerase II transcripts is proposed to occur by a two stage process.^[1] The first stage involves pre-termination cleavage (PTC) of the nascent transcript downstream of the poly(A) site. This process is also referred to as co-transcriptional cleavage (CoTC). The CoTC process in the human beta-globin gene has been shown to involve an RNA self-cleaving activity located in the 3' flanking region of the beta-globin gene. The CoTC core is highly conserved in the 3' UTR of other primate beta-globin genes.^[2] Functionally, this CoTC ribozyme resembles the 3' processive, self-cleaving ribozymes described for the protein-encoding genes from the myxomycetes Didymium iridis and Physarum polycephalum.

There has been no independent confirmation of these findings.

[edit] References

^ Dye MJ, Proudfoot NJ; (2001). "Multiple transcript cleavage precedes polymerase release intermination by RNA polymerase II.". Cell 105: 669-681. PMID 11389836.
^ Teixeira A, Tahiri-Alaoui A, West S, Thomas B, Ramadass A, MartianovI, Dye M, James W, Proudfoot NJ, Akoulitchev A; (2004). "Autocatalytic RNA cleavage in the human beta-globin pre-mRNA promotestranscription termination.". Nature 432: 526-530. PMID 15565159.