RNAs Running the Show Riboswitches raise some interesting
questions about genetic regulation By Aileen Constans
Coming from various directions, a number of research groups
stumbled upon a naturally occurring mechanism for gene
control that depends solely on RNA and environmental cues.
Though the working details for this largely prokaryotic
device are just now being revealed, so called riboswitches
have thus far intrigued and impressed. "It's a completely
new, unsuspected way of controlling gene expression," says
David Lilley, professor of molecular biology, University of
Dundee, Scotland
With implications and applications for basic research and
therapeutics, riboswitches may represent another chisel
chipping away at the now crumbling notion of RNA as an
intermediary between gene and protein. While some disagree
as to whether these are RNA-world relics, they certainly add
to what one researcher calls the "secret society" of RNAs
acting as more than messengers.
Read the rest at TheScientist the-the-Open ↗
scientist.com/yr2004/may/research1_040524.html
Posted by Robert Karl Stonjek.