Ribosomal RNA - Importance of RRNA

Importance of RRNA

Ribosomal RNA characteristics are important in medicine and in evolution.

  • rRNA is the target of several clinically relevant antibiotics: chloramphenicol, erythromycin, kasugamycin, micrococcin, paromomycin, ricin, sarcin, spectinomycin, streptomycin, and thiostrepton.
  • rRNA is one of only a few gene products present in all cells. For this reason, genes that encode the rRNA (rDNA) are sequenced to identify an organism's taxonomic group, calculate related groups, and estimate rates of species divergence. As a result, many thousands of rRNA sequences are known and stored in specialized databases such as RDP-II and SILVA.

Read more about this topic:  Ribosomal RNA

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