© 2008 Oxford University Press
This article appears in the following Nucleic Acid Symposium Series issue: Joint Symposium of the 18th International Roundtable on Nucleosides, Nucleotides and Nucleic Acids and the 35th International Symposium on Nucleic Acids Chemistry [View the issue table of contents]
Protein-Facilitated Ribozyme Folding and Catalysis
1Howard Hughes Medical Institute and 2Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
*Corresponding Author. E-mail: nora.zingler{at}yale.edu
Abstract
In vivo, large RNAs rely on proteins to fold to their native conformation. In the case of the S. cerevisiae group II intron ai5
, the DEAD-box protein Mss116 has been shown to promote the formation of the catalytically active structure. However, it is a matter of debate whether it does this by stabilizing on-pathway intermediates or by disrupting misfolded structures. Here we present the available experimental evidence to distinguish between those mechanisms and discuss the possible interpretations.