page_title: Ligase ribozyme
hierarchical_section_title: Ligase ribozyme
caption_attribution_description: English: 2.98 A crystal structure of the Class I ligase ribozyme (PDB ID:3HHN) The phosphodiester bond formed by this enzyme is depicted as spheres.
context_page_description: The RNA Ligase ribozyme was the first of several types of synthetic ribozymes produced by in vitro evolution and selection techniques. They are an important class of ribozymes because they catalyze the assembly of RNA fragments into phosphodiester RNA polymers, a reaction required of all extant nucleic acid polymerases and thought to be required for any self-replicating molecule. Ideas that the origin of life may have involved the first self-replicating molecules being ribozymes are called RNA World hypotheses. Ligase ribozymes may have been part of such a pre-biotic RNA world.
  In order to copy RNA, fragments or monomers that have 5′-triphosphates must be ligated together. This is true for modern polymerases, and is also the most likely mechanism by which a ribozyme self-replicase in an RNA world might function. Yet no one has found a natural ribozyme that can perform this reaction.
context_section_description: The RNA Ligase ribozyme was the first of several types of synthetic ribozymes produced by in vitro evolution and selection techniques. They are an important class of ribozymes because they catalyze the assembly of RNA fragments into phosphodiester RNA polymers, a reaction required of all extant nucleic acid polymerases and thought to be required for any self-replicating molecule. Ideas that the origin of life may have involved the first self-replicating molecules being ribozymes are called RNA World hypotheses. Ligase ribozymes may have been part of such a pre-biotic RNA world.
  In order to copy RNA, fragments or monomers (individual building blocks) that have 5′-triphosphates must be ligated together. This is true for modern (protein-based) polymerases, and is also the most likely mechanism by which a ribozyme self-replicase in an RNA world might function. Yet no one has found a natural ribozyme that can perform this reaction.
caption: Crystal structure of the Class I ligase ribozyme at 2.98 Å resolution (PDB ID: 3HHN). The phosphodiester bond formed by this enzyme is shown as spheres.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "1499997/2500", "Image YResolution": "1499997/2500", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2011:04:08 21:30:51", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6852", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "894", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "976"}