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ribosomal RNA

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EntityQ215980· pop 49· linked from 958 articles

ribosomal RNA

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Also known as RRNA, RNA, Ribosomal, rRNA

RNA component of the ribosome, essential for protein synthesis in all living organisms

Key facts

Rna type
Gene ; rRNA
Pdb structures
PDBe

via Wikipedia infobox

Research

146,792 papers

via PubMed

~30 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) is a type of non-coding RNA which is the primary component of ribosomes, essential to all cells. rRNA is a ribozyme which carries out protein synthesis in ribosomes. Ribosomal RNA is transcribed from ribosomal DNA (rDNA) and then bound to ribosomal proteins to form small and large ribosome subunits. rRNA is the physical and mechanical factor of the ribosome that forces transfer RNA (tRNA) and messenger RNA (mRNA) to process and translate the latter into proteins. Ribosomal RNA is the predominant form of RNA found in most cells; it makes up about 80% of cellular RNA despite never being translated into proteins itself. Ribosomes are composed of approximately 60% rRNA and 40% ribosomal proteins, though this ratio differs between prokaryotes and eukaryotes.

Structure

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “ribosomal RNA” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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