title: Structure, folding and mechanisms of ribozymes.
abstract: The past two years have seen exciting developments in RNA catalysis. A completely new ribozyme (possibly two) has come along and several new structures have been determined, including three different group I intron species. Although the origins of catalysis remain incompletely understood, a significant convergence of views has happened in the past year, together with the discovery of new super-fast ribozymes. There is persuasive evidence of general acid-base chemistry in nucleolytic ribozymes, whereas catalysis of peptidyl transfer in the ribosome seems to result largely from orientation and proximity effects. Lastly, important new folding-enhancing elements have been discovered.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Research UK Nucleic Acid Structure Research Group, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 5EH, UK. d.m.j.lilley@dundee.ac.uk
authors.forename: David M J
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Lilley
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D002384:Catalysis; D004789:Enzyme Activation; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D017510:Protein Folding; D012326:RNA Splicing; D016337:RNA, Catalytic / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA / Q000379:methods*; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D016337:RNA, Catalytic