[Seminar] Programmable formation of catalytic RNA arrays and polygons by assembling modular RNA enzymes by Professor Yoshiya Ikawa

Abstract

RNA is a versatile biopolymer not only acting as DNA-like genetic material but also exhibiting diverse functions in regulation of cellular biosystems. In addition to its capability to regulate gene expression through sequence-specific hybridization, RNA is also able to form long-range tertiary interactions, with which its secondary structures fold to modular 3D shapes exhibiting protein-like functions and structural assemblies. These properties of RNA make it an attractive material for nanobiotechnology. By using small RNA motifs mediating tertiary interactions as modular tools to assemble RNA 3D modules, we have designed oligomeric RNA nanostructures, in which a large group I ribozyme commonly serves as a unit structure. The resulting ribozyme-based RNA nanostructures exhibited catalytic activity depending on controlled oligomerization to form array and polygonal RNA nanostructures. Because most of the RNA-based nanostructures reported so far are unrelated to naturally occurring ribozymes, modular redesign of structures of large ribozymes enables to use them as promising modular parts in RNA nanotechnology and RNA synthetic biology.