A genomewide search for ribozymes reveals an HDV-like sequence in the human CPEB3 gene.
Ribozymes are thought to have played a pivotal role in the early evolution of life, but relatively few have been identified in modern organisms. We performed an in vitro selection aimed at isolating self-cleaving RNAs from the human genome. The selection yielded several ribozymes, one of which is a conserved mammalian sequence that resides in an intron of the CPEB3 gene, which belongs to a family of genes regulating messenger RNA polyadenylation. The CPEB3 ribozyme is structurally and biochemically related to the human hepatitis delta virus (HDV) ribozymes. The occurrence of this ribozyme exclusively in mammals suggests that it may have evolved as recently as 200 million years ago. We postulate that HDV arose from the human transcriptome.
Salehi-Ashtiani
Kourosh
K
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Molecular Biology, and Center for Computational and Integrative Biology (CCIB), 7215 Simches Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, 185 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Lupták
Andrej
A
Litovchick
Alexander
A
Szostak
Jack W
JW
D020029:Base Pairing; D001483:Base Sequence; D002384:Catalysis; D002413:Cations, Divalent / Q000378:metabolism; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D015894:Genome, Human; D015698:Genomic Library; D003698:Hepatitis Delta Virus / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007438:Introns; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D010766:Phosphorylation; D016337:RNA, Catalytic / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism*; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
C513866:CPEB3 protein, human; D002413:Cations, Divalent; D016337:RNA, Catalytic; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins