Ribozymes and Evolution

Ribozymes are RNA molecules that can carry out enzymatic function by speeding up the rate of a chemical reaction. There are nine known classes of ribozymes extant in nature, and many more that have been designed in the laboratory. The known biological ribozymes are phylogenetically widespread, although more have been discovered from viruses and bacteria than from other groups. Ribozymes play a central role in the evolutionary history of life on the Earth. They may in fact have been part of the first self-replicating biological entities that arose some 4 billion years ago, and today they are found in central positions in cellular biochemistry as a result of their antiquity.