Cryo-EM of a nucleotide-polymerizing ribozyme enables its predictive improvement

Ribozymes capable of self-replication from nucleotides would have been central to the hypothesized RNA World. The leading laboratory models for such molecules were converted from a class I ligase by in vitro evolution but then developed without 3D structures. Here, scaffolded cryo-EM of the substrate-free tC19Z RNA polymerase ribozyme at 3.1 [A] resolution shows how this conversion was achieved.…

biorxiv.org ·14h ago

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