Hairpin ribozyme

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Schematic of the hairpin ribozyme in its natural context. The sequences of loop A and loop B are shown with the cleavage site indicated by a green arrow.

The hairpin ribozyme is a small section of RNA that can act as an enzyme known as a ribozyme. Like the hammerhead ribozyme it is found in RNA satellites of plant viruses. It was first identified in the minus strand of the tobacco ringspot virus (TRSV) satellite RNA where it catalyzes a self-cleavage reaction to process the products of rolling circle virus replication to unit-length satellite RNA. Unlike other ribozymes that cleave RNA the hairpin ribozyme does not require a metal ion for the reaction.

1 Structure
2 Species distribution
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Structure

The structure of the hairpin ribozyme has been solved by x-ray crystallography. The minimal hairpin ribozyme structure required for self-cleavage is composed of four base paired helices, and 2 internal loops, A and B. The bond that is cleaved lies within loop A.

[edit] Species distribution

The hairpin ribozyme has been identified in only 3 plant satellite RNAs:

tobacco ringspot virus (TRSV)
chicory yellow mottle virus (CYMV)
arabis mosaic virus (ARMV)

[edit] References

[1] Butcher, SE; Burke JM (1994). "Structure-mapping of the hairpin ribozyme. Magnesium-dependent folding and evidence for tertiary interactions within the ribozyme-substrate complex". J Mol Biol 244: 52–63. doi:10.1006/jmbi.1994.1703. PMID 7966321.
[2] Symons, RH (1997). "Plant pathogenic RNAs and RNA catalysis". Nucleic Acids Res 25: 2683–2689. doi:10.1093/nar/25.14.2683. PMID 9207012.
[3] Doherty, EA; Doudna JA (2001). "Ribozyme structures and mechanisms". Annu Rev Biophys Biomol Struct 30: 457–475. doi:10.1146/annurev.biophys.30.1.457. PMID 11441810.
[4] Ferre-D'amare, AR; Rupert PB (2002). "The hairpin ribozyme: from crystal structure to function". Biochem Soc Trans 30: 1105–1109. doi:10.1042/BST0301105. PMID 12440983.