RNAases and Ribozymes

[blazinfury]

I am trying to understand the difference between RNAases and ribozymes. Based on what I have read RNAses appear to be a type of ribozyme whose goal is to control the half life of RNA and to degrade viral RNA. Ribozymes are RNA enzymes that perform both catalytic activity and can act as RNAses. Am I missing anything? Thanks.

[CharonY]

That is incorrect. A ribozyme is nucleic acid (RNA) with catalytic properties of sorts. A RNAse is essentially an enzyme with the ability to cleave RNA. The majority of which are proteins, but certain ribozymes also have RNAse activities.

[DNA]

That is incorrect. A ribozyme is nucleic acid (RNA) with catalytic properties of sorts. A RNAse is essentially an enzyme with the ability to cleave RNA. The majority of which are proteins, but certain ribozymes also have RNAse activities.

I just wanted to add 1 more thing to this: ribozyme is nucleic acid (RNA) and protein that function as a protein making factory.

[CharonY]

I am not sure what you mean to say. The first part is correct, ribozymes are nucleic acids. But they are not proteins and do not act as protein making factories. If at all, that role could be assigned to ribosome complexes.