RNA
Ribonucleic acid is a polymeric molecule that is essential for most biological functions, either by performing the function itself or by forming a template for the production of proteins. RNA and deoxyribonucleic acid are nucleic acids. The nucleic acids constitute one of the four major macromolecules essential for all known forms of life. RNA is assembled as a chain of nucleotides. Cellular organisms use messenger RNA to convey genetic information that directs synthesis of specific proteins. Many viruses encode their genetic information using an RNA genome.
Some RNA molecules play an active role within cells by catalyzing biological reactions, controlling gene expression, or sensing and communicating responses to cellular signals. One of these active processes is protein synthesis, a universal function in which RNA molecules direct the synthesis of proteins on ribosomes. This process uses transfer RNA molecules to deliver amino acids to the ribosome, where ribosomal RNA then links amino acids together to form coded proteins.
It has become widely accepted in science that early in the history of life on Earth, prior to the evolution of DNA and possibly of protein-based enzymes as well, an "RNA world" existed in which RNA served as both living organisms' storage method for genetic information—a role fulfilled today by DNA, except in the case of RNA viruses—and potentially performed catalytic functions in cells—a function performed today by protein enzymes, with the notable and important exception of the ribosome, which is a ribozyme.
Chemical structure of RNA
Basic chemical composition
Each nucleotide in RNA contains a ribose sugar, with carbons numbered 1' through 5'. A base is attached to the 1' position, in general, adenine, cytosine, guanine, or uracil. Adenine and guanine are purines, and cytosine and uracil are pyrimidines. A phosphate group is attached to the 3' position of one ribose and the 5' position of the next. The phosphate groups have a negative charge each, making RNA a charged molecule. The bases form standard hydrogen bonds between cytosine and guanine and between adenine and uracil, while guanine and uracil can pair through a non-canonical G–U wobble base pair. However, other interactions are possible, such as a group of adenine bases binding to each other in a bulge,or the GNRA tetraloop that has a guanine–adenine base-pair.
Differences between DNA and RNA
Like DNA, most biologically active RNAs, including mRNA, tRNA, rRNA, snRNAs, and other non-coding RNAs, contain self-complementary sequences that allow parts of the RNA to fold and pair with itself to form double helices. Analysis of these RNAs has revealed that they are highly structured. Unlike DNA, their structures do not consist of long double helices, but rather collections of short helices packed together into structures akin to proteins.
In this fashion, RNAs can achieve chemical catalysis. For instance, determination of the structure of the ribosome—an RNA-protein complex that catalyzes the assembly of proteins—revealed that its active site is composed entirely of RNA.
An important structural component of RNA that distinguishes it from DNA is the presence of a hydroxyl group at the 2' position of the ribose sugar. The presence of this functional group causes the helix to mostly take the A-form geometry, although in single strand dinucleotide contexts, RNA can rarely also adopt the B-form most commonly observed in DNA. The A-form geometry results in a very deep and narrow major groove and a shallow and wide minor groove. A second consequence of the presence of the 2'-hydroxyl group is that in conformationally flexible regions of an RNA molecule, it can chemically attack the adjacent phosphodiester bond to cleave the backbone.
Secondary and tertiary structures
The functional form of single-stranded RNA molecules, just like proteins, frequently requires a specific spatial tertiary structure. The scaffold for this structure is provided by secondary structural elements that are hydrogen bonds within the molecule. This leads to several recognizable "domains" of secondary structure like hairpin loops, bulges, and internal loops. In order to create, i.e., design, RNA for any given secondary structure, two or three bases would not be enough, but four bases are enough. This is likely why nature has "chosen" a four base alphabet: fewer than four would not allow the creation of all structures, while more than four bases are not necessary to do so. Since RNA is charged, metal ions such as Mg2+ are needed to stabilise many secondary and tertiary structures.The naturally occurring enantiomer of RNA is D-RNA composed of D-ribonucleotides. All chirality centers are located in the D-ribose. By the use of L-ribose or rather L-ribonucleotides, L-RNA can be synthesized. L-RNA is much more stable against degradation by RNase.
Like other structured biopolymers such as proteins, one can define topology of a folded RNA molecule. This is often done based on arrangement of intra-chain contacts within a folded RNA, termed as circuit topology.
Chemical modifications
RNA is transcribed with only four bases, but these bases and attached sugars can be modified in numerous ways as the RNAs mature. Pseudouridine, in which the linkage between uracil and ribose is changed from a C–N bond to a C–C bond, and ribothymidine are found in various places. Another notable modified base is hypoxanthine, a deaminated adenine base whose nucleoside is called inosine. Inosine plays a key role in the wobble hypothesis of the genetic code.There are more than 100 other naturally occurring modified nucleosides. The greatest structural diversity of modifications can be found in tRNA, while pseudouridine and nucleosides with 2'-O-methylribose often present in rRNA are the most common. The specific roles of many of these modifications in RNA are not fully understood. However, it is notable that, in ribosomal RNA, many of the post-transcriptional modifications occur in highly functional regions, such as the peptidyl transferase center and the subunit interface, implying that they are important for normal function.
Types of RNA
Messenger RNA is the type of RNA that carries information from DNA to the ribosome, the sites of protein synthesis in the cell cytoplasm. The coding sequence of the mRNA determines the amino acid sequence in the protein that is produced. However, many RNAs do not code for protein.These so-called non-coding RNAs can be encoded by their own genes, but can also derive from mRNA introns. The most prominent examples of non-coding RNAs are transfer RNA and ribosomal RNA, both of which are involved in the process of translation. There are also non-coding RNAs involved in gene regulation, RNA processing and other roles. Certain RNAs are able to catalyse chemical reactions such as cutting and ligating other RNA molecules, and the catalysis of peptide bond formation in the ribosome; these are known as ribozymes.
According to the length of RNA chain, RNA includes small RNA and long RNA. Usually, small RNAs are shorter than 200 nt in length, and long RNAs are greater than 200 nt long. Long RNAs, also called large RNAs, mainly include long non-coding RNA and mRNA. Small RNAs mainly include 5.8S ribosomal RNA, 5S rRNA, transfer RNA, microRNA, small interfering RNA, small nucleolar RNA, Piwi-interacting RNA, tRNA-derived small RNA and small rDNA-derived RNA.
There are certain exceptions as in the case of the 5S rRNA of the members of the genus Halococcus, which have an insertion, thus increasing its size.
RNAs involved in protein synthesis
carries information about a protein sequence to the ribosomes, the protein synthesis factories in the cell. It is coded so that every three nucleotides corresponds to one amino acid. In eukaryotic cells, once precursor mRNA has been transcribed from DNA, it is processed to mature mRNA. This removes its introns—non-coding sections of the pre-mRNA. The mRNA is then exported from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, where it is bound to ribosomes and translated into its corresponding protein form with the help of tRNA. In prokaryotic cells, which do not have nucleus and cytoplasm compartments, mRNA can bind to ribosomes while it is being transcribed from DNA. After a certain amount of time, the message degrades into its component nucleotides with the assistance of ribonucleases.Transfer RNA is a small RNA chain of about 80 nucleotides that transfers a specific amino acid to a growing polypeptide chain at the ribosomal site of protein synthesis during translation. It has sites for amino acid attachment and an anticodon region for codon recognition that binds to a specific sequence on the messenger RNA chain through hydrogen bonding.
Ribosomal RNA is the catalytic component of the ribosomes. The rRNA is the component of the ribosome that hosts translation. Eukaryotic ribosomes contain four different rRNA molecules: 18S, 5.8S, 28S and 5S rRNA. Three of the rRNA molecules are synthesized in the nucleolus, and one is synthesized elsewhere. In the cytoplasm, ribosomal RNA and protein combine to form a nucleoprotein called a ribosome. The ribosome binds mRNA and carries out protein synthesis. Several ribosomes may be attached to a single mRNA at any time. Nearly all the RNA found in a typical eukaryotic cell is rRNA.
Transfer-messenger RNA is found in many bacteria and plastids. It tags proteins encoded by mRNAs that lack stop codons for degradation and prevents the ribosome from stalling.