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Updated: May 6, 2026

Analysis of Group IV Viral SSHHPS Using In Vitro and In Silico Methods
Published on: December 21, 2019
HDV family of self-cleaving ribozymes
Nathan Riccitelli1, Andrej Lupták
1Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, California, USA.
Abstract:
The hepatitis delta virus (HDV) ribozymes are catalytic RNAs capable of cleaving their own sugar-phosphate backbone. The HDV virus possesses the ribozymes in both sense and antisense genomic transcripts, where they are essential for processing during replication. These ribozymes have been the subject of intense biochemical scrutiny and have yielded a wealth of mechanistic insights. In recent years, many HDV-like ribozymes have been identified in nearly all branches of life. The ribozymes are implicated in a variety of biological events, including episodic memory in mammals and retrotransposition in many eukaryotes. Detailed analysis of additional HDV-like ribozyme isolates will likely reveal many more biological functions and provide information about the evolution of this unique RNA.
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