The RNA World The Nature of Modern RNA Suggests a Prebiotic RNA World

About this book

Revised, updated, and extended edition offering a completely current perspective on the modern world of RNA and the light it sheds on a prebiotic era perhaps dominated by this versatile molecule.
`....rich source of information and indispensable reading for researchers investigating the biology of nucleic acids. Because of its wider scope, [it] will also attract nonspecialist readers interested in how life on Earth may have originated and evolved.' Science

Contents

THE ORIGINS OF RNA AND RNA AT THE ORIGIN 1. Setting the Stage. The History, Chemistry, and Geobiology behind RNA 2. Progress toward Understanding the Origin of the RNA World 3. Protocells: Genetic Polymers Inside Membrane Vesicles BUILDING A FUNCTIONAL RNA 4. Riboswitches and the RNA World 5. Catalytic Strategies of Self-cleaving Ribozymes: Relics of an RNA World? 6. How the Group I Intron Works: A Case Study of RNA Structure and Function EXITING THE ANCIENT RNA WORLD - SYNTHETASES AND RIBOSOMES 7. RNA, Lipids, and Membranes 8. Aminoacyl tRNA Synthetases: From the RNA World to the Theater of Proteins 9. The Roles of RNA in the Synthesis of Protein 10. Evolution of Ribosomes and Translation from an RNA World RICHNESS OF RNA ROLES IN MODERN RNA WORLD 11. The RNA World 12. The Ever-Growing World of Small Nuclear Ribonucleoproteins 13. Spliceosome Structure and Function 14. Urdine Insertion/Deletion RNA Editing as a Paradigm for Site-specific Modifications of RNA Molecules 15. Telomerase RNA 16. The Shapely mRNA: Knotting Ventured, Knotting Gained RNA CONTINUES TO TRIUMPH OVER DNA 17. Group II Introns: Ribozymes that Splice RNA and Invade DNA 18. SINEs and LINEs: Troublemakers, Saboteurs, Benefactors, Ancestors 19. The Biology of Short RNAs 20. Versatile Roles of Small RNA Regulators in Bacteria 21. Large Noncoding RNAs in Mammalian Gene Dosage Regulation EMERGING TOOLS 22. Predicting RNA Secondary Structure 23. A Modular and Hierarchical Approach for All-Atom RNA Modeling 24. Automated In Vitro Selection and Microarray Applications for Functional RNA Sequences 25. RNA Folding, Unfolding, and Dynamics, One Molecule at a Time Appendix Index

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