Ribozymes (catalytic RNA)
Ribozimas (ARN catalítico)
- Date
- 1982-1983 · confidence high
- Place
- University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, United States
- Credited to
- Thomas Cech (Boulder) and Sidney Altman (Yale)
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Cech discovered that Tetrahymena ribosomal RNA cuts and splices itself without proteins; Altman showed that the RNA of ribonuclease P is the catalytic component. RNA can act as an enzyme, which underpins the RNA-world hypothesis and RNA therapeutics.
1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (Cech and Altman). Altman worked at Yale (Guerrier-Takada, Gardiner, Marsh, Pace and Altman, 1983).
What it led to
- RNA-world hypothesis on the origin of life
- engineered ribozymes and riboswitches
- catalytic RNA in protein synthesis (the ribosome as a ribozyme)