CSB351Y1 Lecture 13: Lecture 13
Document Summary
Viroids are small circular rna, have no coding capacity, but are capable of replication. They use rna polymerase, a dna directed rna polymerase in the nucleus for their replication. Viroids that have ribozymes, replicate in chloroplasts; small amount, not in nucleus; majority are in nucleus. Usually they have a structure that is ds rna, that has some mismatches; looks like ds, this is diagram, shows lots of bubbles, they don"t match. That structure that looks like ds, is very important for the life of those viroids. They have to have an origin of replication, dna dep rna polymerase of the cell has to recognize an origin of replication. 20 types of viroids, did a study, most have this conserved sequence, nothing to memorize, in the middle, then have conserved domains, which are circular, but then makes this kind of odd shape due to mis-match base pairing.