Rna World
The RNA Worlds in Context
Thomas R. Cech
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0215
Correspondence: thomas.cech@colorado.edu
SUMMARY
There are two RNAworlds. The first is the primordial RNAworld, a hypothetical era when RNA served as both information and function, both genotype and phenotype. The second RNA world is that of today’s biological systems, where RNA plays active roles in catalyzing biochemical reactions, in translating mRNA into proteins, in regulating gene expression, and in the constant battle between infectious agents trying to subvert host defense systems and host cells protecting themselves from infection. This second RNA world is not at all hypothetical, and although we do not have all the answers about how it works, we have the tools to continue our interrogation of this world and refine our understanding. The fun comes when we try to use our secure knowledge of the modern RNAworld to infer what the primordial RNAworld might have looked like.
Outline
1 The primordial RNA world 2 The contemporary RNA world 3 The world of RNA technology and medical applications References
Editors: John F. Atkins, Raymond F. Gesteland, and Thomas R. Cech Additional Perspectives on RNA Worlds available at www.cshperspectives.org Copyright # 2012 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; all rights reserved; doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a006742 Cite as Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol 2012;4:a006742
1
T.R. Cech
1 THE PRIMORDIAL RNA WORLD The term “RNA world” was first coined by Gilbert (1986), who was mainly interested in how catalytic RNA might have given rise to the exon–intron structure of genes. But the concept of RNA as a primordial molecule is older, hypothesized by Crick (1968), Orgel (1968), and Woese (1967). Noller subsequently provided evidence that ribosomal RNA is more important than ribosomal proteins for the function of the ribosome, giving experimental
Thomas R. Cech
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0215
Correspondence: thomas.cech@colorado.edu
SUMMARY
There are two RNAworlds. The first is the primordial RNAworld, a hypothetical era when RNA served as both information and function, both genotype and phenotype. The second RNA world is that of today’s biological systems, where RNA plays active roles in catalyzing biochemical reactions, in translating mRNA into proteins, in regulating gene expression, and in the constant battle between infectious agents trying to subvert host defense systems and host cells protecting themselves from infection. This second RNA world is not at all hypothetical, and although we do not have all the answers about how it works, we have the tools to continue our interrogation of this world and refine our understanding. The fun comes when we try to use our secure knowledge of the modern RNAworld to infer what the primordial RNAworld might have looked like.
Outline
1 The primordial RNA world 2 The contemporary RNA world 3 The world of RNA technology and medical applications References
Editors: John F. Atkins, Raymond F. Gesteland, and Thomas R. Cech Additional Perspectives on RNA Worlds available at www.cshperspectives.org Copyright # 2012 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; all rights reserved; doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a006742 Cite as Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol 2012;4:a006742
1
T.R. Cech
1 THE PRIMORDIAL RNA WORLD The term “RNA world” was first coined by Gilbert (1986), who was mainly interested in how catalytic RNA might have given rise to the exon–intron structure of genes. But the concept of RNA as a primordial molecule is older, hypothesized by Crick (1968), Orgel (1968), and Woese (1967). Noller subsequently provided evidence that ribosomal RNA is more important than ribosomal proteins for the function of the ribosome, giving experimental
References: T.R. Cech 1 THE PRIMORDIAL RNA WORLD The term “RNA world” was first coined by Gilbert (1986), who was mainly interested in how catalytic RNA might have given rise to the exon–intron structure of genes