Structure-based search reveals hammerhead ribozymes in the human microbiome.

ABSTRACT: Deep sequencing of viral or bacterial nucleic acids monitors the presence and diversity of microbes in select populations and locations. Metagenomic study of mammalian viromes can help trace paths of viral transmissions within or between species. High throughput sequencing of patient and untreated sewage microbiomes showed many sequences with no similarity to genomic sequences of known function or origin. To estimate the distribution of functional RNAs in these microbiomes, we used the hammerhead ribozyme (HHR) motif to search for sequences capable of assuming its three-way junction fold. Although only two of the three possible natural HHR topologies had been known, our analysis revealed highly active ribozymes that terminated in any of the three stems. The most abundant of these are type

SUBMITTER: Jimenez RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3048661 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature