The mammalian CPEB3 ribozyme is a self cleaving

non-coding RNA A non-coding RNA (ncRNA) is a functional RNA molecule that is not translated into a protein. The DNA sequence from which a functional non-coding RNA is transcribed is often called an RNA gene. Abundant and functionally important types of non- ...

located in the second

intron An intron is any nucleotide sequence within a gene that is not expressed or operative in the final RNA product. The word ''intron'' is derived from the term ''intragenic region'', i.e. a region inside a gene."The notion of the cistron .e., gene ...

of the CPEB3 gene which belongs to a family of genes regulating messenger RNA

polyadenylation Polyadenylation is the addition of a poly(A) tail to an RNA transcript, typically a messenger RNA (mRNA). The poly(A) tail consists of multiple adenosine monophosphates; in other words, it is a stretch of RNA that has only adenine bases. In eu ...

. This ribozyme is highly conserved and found only in mammals. The CPEB3 ribozyme is structurally and biochemically related to the human

hepatitis delta virus ribozyme The hepatitis delta virus (HDV) ribozyme is a non-coding RNA found in the hepatitis delta virus that is necessary for viral replication and is the only known human virus that utilizes ribozyme activity to infect its host. The ribozyme acts to pr ...

. Other HDV-like ribozymes have been identified and confirmed to be active ''in vitro'' in a number of eukaryotes.

References

External links

* Non-coding RNA Ribozymes RNA splicing {{molecular-cell-biology-stub