RNA Biology An Introduction

About this book

Written with biologists, biochemists and other molecular scientists in mind, RNA Biology: An Introduction meets the long-felt need for a textbook dedicated to the topic and recreates the excitement surrounding the scientific revolution sparked by the discovery of RNA interference in 1998. Students and instructors alike will profit from the author's exclusive first-hand knowledge, drawing on his breakthrough discoveries at the Tuschl lab at Rockefeller University.

Gunter Meister abandons the traditionalist treatment of nucleic acids found in most biochemistry and molecular biology texts, adopting instead a modern approach in both concept and scope. The text is divided into three parts, on mRNA, non-coding RNA, and RNomics, and the author addresses the traditional roles of RNA in the transmission and regulation of genetic information, as well as the recently discovered functions of small RNA species in pathogen defense, cell differentiation and higher-level genomic regulation. All set to become the standard for teaching molecular science to biologists and biochemists.

Contents

Preface

Part One mRNA Biology
1 Introduction
2 Transcription of Pre-mRNAs
3 Capping of the Pre-mRNA 5´ End
4 3´ End Processing of Pre-mRNAs
5 Splicing of Eukaryotic Pre-mRNAs
6 mRNA Export from the Nucleus to the Cytoplasm
7 Translation
8 Deadenylation of mRNA
9 mRNA Decapping
10 mRNA Decay Pathways
11 mRNA Quality Control

Part Two Non-Coding RNA Biology
12 Ribosomal RNAs and the Biogenesis of Ribosomes
13 Transfer RNAs
14 The 7SL RNA and the Signal Recognition Particle
15 Regulation of Transcription: the 7SK Small Nuclear RNA
16 Small Nucleolar RNAs
17 Spliceosomal Small Nuclear RNAs
18 Small Non-Coding RNAs and the Mechanism of Gene Silencing
19 Long Non-Coding RNAs
20 RNA Editing
21 Ribozymes – Catalytic RNA Molecules
22 Riboswitches and RNA Sensors
23 RNomics

References
Appendix: Answers to Questions
Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Gunter Meister is the head of the research group "RNA Biology" at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried (Germany). He obtained his PhD degree from the University of Munich and the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, working on RNA-protein complexes. Thereafter, he joined the group of Tom Tuschl at the Rockefeller University in New York (USA), where he worked on RNA interference and small non-coding RNAs. Gunter Meister has received an EMBO long-term fellowship as well as an Emmy Noether fellowship from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.