Biological Function
The hairpin ribozyme is an RNA motif that catalyzes RNA processing reactions essential for replication of the satellite RNA molecules in which it is embedded. These reactions are self-processing, i.e. a molecule rearranging its own structure. Both cleavage and end joining reactions are mediated by the ribozyme motif, leading to a mixture of interconvertible linear and circular satellite RNA molecules. These reactions are important for processing the large multimeric RNA molecules that are generated by rolling circle replication. At the end of the replication cycle, these large intermediates of satellite RNA replication are processed down to unit length molecules (circular or linear) before they can be packaged by viruses and carried to other cells for further rounds of replication.
Read more about this topic: Hairpin Ribozyme
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