Naturally occurring ribozymes with defined three-dimensional (3D) structures serve as promising platforms for the design and construction of artificial RNA nanostructures. We constructed a hexameric ribozyme nanostructure by face-to-face dimerization of a pair of triangular ribozyme trimers, unit RNAs of which were derived from the Tetrahymena group I ribozyme. In this study, we have expanded the dimerization strategy to a square-shaped ribozyme tetramer by introducing four pillar units. The resulting box-shaped nanostructures, which contained eight ribozyme units, can be assembled from either four or two components of their unit RNAs.
Keywords: Catalytic RNA; Group I intron; RNA nanostructure; RNA nanotechnology; RNA origami; Ribozyme.
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