title: The meaning of a minuscule ribozyme.
abstract: The smallest ribozyme that carries out a complex group transfer is the sequence GUGGC-3', acting to aminoacylate GCCU-3' (and host a manifold of further reactions) in the presence of substrate PheAMP. Here, I describe the enzymatic rate, the characterization of about 20 aminoacyl-RNA and peptidyl-RNA products and the pathways of these GUGGC/GCCU reactions. Finally, the topic is evolution, and the potential implications of these data for the advent of translation itself.
authors.affiliation: Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0347, USA. yarus@colorado.edu
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yarus
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D049148:Aminoacylation; D001483:Base Sequence; D002384:Catalysis; D020134:Catalytic Domain; D004789:Enzyme Activation; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D007700:Kinetics; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D009711:Nucleotides / Q000378:metabolism; D010649:Phenylalanine / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D012313:RNA / Q000378:metabolism*; D016337:RNA, Catalytic / Q000378:metabolism*; D013379:Substrate Specificity
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D009711:Nucleotides; D016337:RNA, Catalytic; D010649:Phenylalanine; D012313:RNA