RNA as a conception
- Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- Corresponding author: ellingtonlab{at}gmail.com
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
RNA is of course a macromolecule that both carries information and mediates function. Indeed, this statement sort of defines the first two of what I consider to be three eras of RNA research. The Central Dogma more or less defines the first era, where the basic principles of molecular biology make RNA the messenger for how DNA talks to proteins. That said, even back then Crick and Orgel recognized that RNA could be much more, and as early as 1968 presciently foretold Tom Cech's and Sydney Altman's 1989 Nobel-worthy discovery that RNA could be a catalyst.
I believe that one of the major advances since then, due in large part to this journal, is the recognition that RNA is more than just a messenger and the odd, maybe-primitive-maybe-not catalyst. RNA has taken on so many different roles now that it is hard to see it as other than a conception …
