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Updated: Jul 31, 2026

Nanomanipulation of Single RNA Molecules by Optical Tweezers
Published on: August 20, 2014
A multisubunit ribozyme that is a catalyst of and template for complementary strand RNA synthesis
J A Doudna1, S Couture, J W Szostak
1Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston 02114.
Abstract:
Derivatives of the sunY self-splicing intron efficiently catalyzed the synthesis of complementary strand RNA by template-directed assembly of oligonucleotides. These ribozymes were separated into three short RNA fragments that formed active catalytic complexes. One of the multisubunit sunY derivatives catalyzed the synthesis of a strand of RNA complementary to one of its own subunits. These results suggest that prebiotically synthesized oligonucleotides might have been able to assemble into a complex capable of self-replication.
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