Department of Biology, Institut für Physikalische Biologie, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Universitätsstr. 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2018 Nov 16;46(20):10563-10576. doi: 10.1093/nar/gky903.
Viroids were described 47 years ago as the smallest RNA molecules capable of infecting plants and autonomously self-replicating without an encoded protein. Work on viroids initiated the development of a number of innovative methods. Novel chromatographic and gelelectrophoretic methods were developed for the purification and characterization of viroids; these methods were later used in molecular biology, gene technology and in prion research. Theoretical and experimental studies of RNA folding demonstrated the general biological importance of metastable structures, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of viroid RNA showed the partially covalent nature of hydrogen bonds in biological macromolecules. RNA biochemistry and molecular biology profited from viroid research, such as in the detection of RNA as template of DNA-dependent polymerases and in mechanisms of gene silencing. Viroids, the first circular RNA detected in nature, are important for studies on the much wider spectrum of circular RNAs and other non-coding RNAs.
类病毒是 47 年前被描述为能够感染植物并自主复制的最小 RNA 分子，无需编码蛋白。类病毒的研究开创了许多创新方法的发展。新型色谱和凝胶电泳方法被开发用于类病毒的纯化和特性分析；这些方法后来被用于分子生物学、基因技术和朊病毒研究。对 RNA 折叠的理论和实验研究证明了亚稳态结构的普遍生物学重要性，类病毒 RNA 的核磁共振波谱显示了生物大分子中氢键的部分共价性质。类病毒研究促进了 RNA 生物化学和分子生物学的发展，例如在检测 RNA 作为 DNA 依赖性聚合酶的模板和基因沉默机制方面。类病毒是自然界中首次检测到的环形 RNA，对研究更广泛的环形 RNA 和其他非编码 RNA 具有重要意义。
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