A ribozyme is a ribonucleic acid with enzyme-like catalytic properties. Some believe that rRNA, rather than protein components of the ribosome, may directly catalyze the formation of peptide bonds between amino acids as ribosomes assemble proteins. The catalytic capacity of RNA suggests that a randomly assembled RNA polymer may have the ability to catalyze its own replication. Because proteins are chemically more versatile than RNA, they perform the catalytic duties. The remaining catalytic duties of RNA may be vestiges left over from the earliest cells.
Telomeres are repeated sequences of DNA at the ends of each chromosome in eukaryotic cells.
RNA may play a unique role in telomere replication, which ensures that chromosomal DNA is faithfully duplicated.