Page 240 - The Manga Guide to Biochemistry

Ribozymes

To summarize, RNA breaks down quickly, but it can do things that DNA can’t.
RNA exists both in the nucleus and the cytoplasm, and it can take various
forms depending on the base sequence.

It’s a very flexible molecule, isn’t it?

Definitely. RNA researchers have long believed that RNA probably has other
important jobs besides copying genes and interacting with ribosomes.

Ribozymes, which were independently discovered at the beginning of the
1980s by the American microbiologist Thomas Cech and the Canadian molecu-
lar biologist Sidney Altman, foretold later developments in RNA research. You
learned earlier that one very important job of proteins is their work as enzymes
(see page 153), but Cech and Altman actually discovered that RNA has the flex-
ibility to work as an enzyme as well.

Huh!

So they combined the words “RNA (ribonucleic acid)” and “enzyme” to coin the
term ribozyme.

RNA Enzyme RNA
riboancuicdleic Enzyme enzyme

Ribozyme

226 Chapter 5