In: Biology
Give an example of a process in gene expression where RNA acts an enzyme?
It was believed some years back that proteins alone can act as enzymes till ribozymes were identified. Ribozymes are the RNA molecules that catalyse or accelerate chemical reactions.It is believed that two of the very important reactions of cells are catalysed by these RNA.
The condensation of aminoacids in the peptidyl transferase center of the ribosome
The splicing of mRNA in eukaryotes which is catalysed by U2-U6 sn RNA.
So both ribosome and spliceosome are ribozymes.
Each spliceosome is composed of five small nuclear RNAa and a range of associated protein factors. When these small RNAs are combined with the protein factors, they make RNA-protein complexes called snRNPs.
RNA splicing forms mature mRNA by processing precursor mRNA by removing the introns . Within introns, a donor site, a branch site and an acceptor site are required for splicing.
The spliceosomes splices introns containing GU at the 5' splice site and AG at the 3' splice site.
Hence the process in gene expression where RNA acts as enzyme is mRNA splicing mediated by ribozymes called spliceosome.