Scott Lab: L1X6c Ligase

Recent Highlights Research Overview Publications Atomic Coordinates Research Projects: RNA Structure Catalysis Origin of Life Lab members and their pages Software Links of Interest Back to Scott Lab Home Page            The Crystal Structure of an RNA Ligating Ribozyme and its Implications for the RNA World Link to a description geared toward the non-specialist Link to a detailed description with further links The paper Link to Jmol display of the structure The discovery 25 years ago that RNA can be enzymatic permits us to speculate that pre-biotic self-replicating molecules may have been RNAs. This is known as the "RNA World" hypothesis. As a first step to understanding what properties of ribozymes are of fundamental importance to a plausible RNA World evolutionary scenerio, and how RNA catalysts evolve in three-dimensional space, we have solved the structure of an RNA Ligase Ribozyme that catalyzes the assembly of RNA from a nucleotide-5'-triphosphate fragment.

Restrict search to this website.