Yale Scientists Visualize Molecular Detail Of RNA Splicing Complex

TERRADAILY

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New Haven CT (SPX) Jun 04, 2004
Scientists in the department of molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale revealed the crystal structure of the first described enzymatic RNA - what it looks like and how it reacts - in the journal Nature.

Scott Strobel, professor and principal investigator of the study and his research team at Yale, used X-ray crystallography to image the self-splicing group-I intron and the associations it makes as it reacts. The image shows an interaction with metal ions and the alignment of the RNA molecule segments.

"The structure reveals how RNA, which is chemically very different from protein, is able to use metal ions to achieve a very similar reaction mechanism," said Scott Strobel, "This argues for an evolutionarily ancient mechanism."

Over twenty years ago scientists discovered that RNA, and not just protein, could act like an enzyme. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1989 was awarded to Thomas Cech at the University of Colorado and Sidney Altman at Yale at for this revolutionary discovery.

"This is the first RNA splicing complex to be visualized in molecular detail," said Strobel. "Now we can finally see what it looks like and how it reacts."

TERRADAILY

Tiny Microbes In Greenland Glacier May Define Limits For Life On Earth

New Orleans LA (SPX) May 26, 2004
The discovery of millions of micro-microbes surviving in a 120,000-year-old ice sample taken from 3,000 meters below the surface of the Greenland glacier will be announced by Penn State University scientists on 26 May 2004 at the General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in New Orleans, Louisiana.

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